T

he popularity of TV series persists, but the attention of Indonesian viewers has shifted '€” to Turkish series.

A survey by Nielsen Television Audience Measurement reveals that viewers spend longer watching Turkish series than other series.

The survey, disclosed on Wednesday, was conducted from January to September, involving 2,200 people older than 5 years old who live in 11 cities: Bandung, Banjarmasin, Denpasar, Jakarta, Makassar, Medan, Palembang, Semarang, Surabaya, Surakarta and Yogyakarta.

All fresh and re-run programs aired on 11 national TV stations were taken into account for the survey.

'€œSinetron [local soap opera] still dominates, contributing the most titles to the market with the most broadcast time, but viewers now spend a longer time '€” on average of 31 minutes per viewer per day '€” in front of the TV to watch Turkish series,'€ said Nielsen'€™s media research director Mochammad Ardiansyah.

He said that during the survey period only about 11 titles of Turkish series were aired on TV, while at the same time there were 202 Indonesian titles, but they only gained an average of 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, there were 27 titles of Indian series with a 21-minute average watching time and other series '€” Japanese, Korean and Chinese '€” amounting to 97 titles with 14 minutes on average.

'€œTurkish titles air outside prime time at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., yet they are able to attract attention,'€ Ardiansyah said.

'€œViewers like Turkish series maybe because they offer something new that sinetron can'€™t give.'€

The trend toward Turkish TV series began late last year when Abad Kejayaan (Glorious Century) aired on the ANTV television station. In March, SCTV aired Elif, which was then followed by the release of other Turkish series in other TV stations.

But long before that, Indonesian viewers had been entertained by imported series from Latin America in the early 1990s and then by Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Korean dramas.

According to Nielsen, the most watched Turkish series this year is Cansu & Hazal, followed by Shehrazat 1001 Malam and then Elif in third place.

For Indonesian TV series, Pangeran (Prince), which stars young actor Ricky Harun, tops the chart with 4.4 rating points, Preman Pensiun 2 (Retired Thug 2) comes second at 4.3 and Tukang Bubur Naik Haji (Porridge Seller Goes on the Haj) at 3.9.

For Indian series, Jodha Akbar has the most viewers with an average number of 2,143, Mahabharata is second with 1,623 viewers and Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat third with 1,609.

Nielsen also revealed in the survey that TV series gained the highest ratings of all programs across the whole day with 1.7 points, higher than special programs that got 1.2, movies and children'€™s programs with 1.1 and other programs '€” entertainment, information, news, religious and sports '€” with one point.

The series rating points are, however, lower than in previous years. The glory days of TV series was in 2005 when the ratings could hit 14.3. Since then, the ratings have been steadily decreasing, taken over by sports, music and talent search programs.

'€œTV series are still popular. They only account for 10 percent of the total 143,480 broadcast hours, but viewers spend 20 percent of their time watching TV series,'€ he said, adding that most TV series were broadcast on prime time at 6 to 9 p.m.

Most viewers of TV series are females from 5 to 30 years old '€” except those of Turkish titles that have attracted viewers who are mostly above 30.