Max Confirms Spring Launch In Turkey; French Scripted Originals Revealed

Warner Bros Discovery’s Turkish content chief Deniz Şaşmaz Oflaz has confirmed Max will launch in Turkey.

The international streamer will replace WBD’s existing service, BluTV, which is acquired in full last year. During a panel at Content London, Oflaz revealed the switchover would happen in spring 2025 said her team was “working heavily on the changes.”

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The BluTV team will begin informing local subscribers about the changes in coming weeks, with the new-look services combining existing originals and acquisitions, with Max’s library of Warner Bros movies, DC Universe shows, HBO content and more from the kids and docs genres.

The switch had been heavily suspected since the BluTV acquisition. WBD said details on launch date and pricing would follow “closer to launch.” BluTV had launched in 2016 and five years later struck an agreement to carry Discovery+, with WBD predecessor Discovery buying 35% of the streamer in the process. WBD then bought the rest at the end of 2023.

According to WBD, the Turkey launch will put Max at 74 markets with over 110 million subscribers, having added 14 million this year. A launch in Australia will come at around the same time as Turkey, while debuts in Launches in “three of the biggest European markets” — understood to be the UK, Germany and Italy, where WBD’s Sky deals are currently in place — are coming in 2026, according to the company.

Originals in Max Turkey for 2025 include season 3 of comedy-drama Prince, season 2 of crime drama Magarsus and The First Göktürk, a historical fantasy series fusing Turkish and nomadic history with mythology. The first part of the “hybrid” series, which is from Turkish director Alper Çağlar, will debut in 2025, with a series and film telling “a story of friendship, freedom, and historical struggle.”

French originals

In further Max news unveiled today, Vera Peltekian, VP of Original Productions at Max France, unveiled a pair of scripted originals.

Privileges (working title) is a six-part threiller. Synopsis reads: “Young inmate Adèle lands a day job at a luxurious Paris hotel as part of an early-release deal, willing to endure any humiliation for a fresh start. But when she discovers her criminal past and her disposability are the very reason the Palace hired her, a dangerous game of power and manipulation begins.”

The show is created, written and directed by Marie Monge and Vladimir de Fontenay, marking their second collaboration after Netflix’s Vampires. Hugo Gélin from Zazi Séries is producing and shooting begins in January 2025.

Paolo will comprise seven hour-long episodes. It follows Paolo, whose ordinary working-class existence is upended when he encounters the ambitious, and magnetic local politician Téophane, an old school mate. What begins as admiration and a desire to help Téophane’s campaign soon spirals into an all-consuming obsession, leading to a deadly ride in this intense psychological Ripley-style thriller, accordion to WBD.

It is created, written and directed by Sébastien Marnier (Faultless, The The Origin of Evil) and is planned as a returning series. Juliette Soubrier is the co-writer and Floriane Cortes from Mintee is producing. Shooting stars next year.

This comes after Max France launched its first scripted series, The Confidante, in October and a first doc series, Breaking the Bank, last month. Upcoming originals for 2025 include Mediawan crime thriller Malditos (working title); Federation Studios dramedy Reformed, about one of France’s first female rabbis; The Seduction (aka Merteuil), which we brought you a first at this morning; and ‘mini-docuseries’ Now or Never – FC Montfermeil.

“Thanks to strong choices, our ambition with our French productions is to anchor Max even more firmly in the French market with an audience that demands high-quality storytelling,” said Peltekian. “We produce original works that are both universal, unique, and timeless.”

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