Yigit Dogan Celik of Merzigo: “Latin America Represents One Of The Most Attractive Growth Opportunities In Digital Content”

Merzigo Chairman and CEO Yigit Dogan Celik examines the transformation of the content distribution business and the opportunities the digital environment presents for rights holders.

In contrast to the traditional model, based on the sale or licensing of content rights, the company is pursuing an active approach that combines technology, data, localization, audience development, intellectual property protection and monetization to create new revenue streams.

In an interview with PRODU, Celik explains how the company seeks to turn established catalogs into digital businesses, the role played by artificial intelligence and data, and why he believes platforms such as YouTube can become a strategic source of revenue for content owners.

-PRODU: What are Merzigo’s main differences and advantages compared with a traditional content distribution company?

Yigit Dogan Celik: The fundamental difference is that a traditional distributor typically sells rights and hands the content over. Merzigo operates the content actively building audiences around that content and creating new digital revenue from it.

Our advantage is that we combine the scale of a global content network with the technology, data and operational capabilities of a digital platform. Once the rights are secured, we stay close to the content – managing localisation, channels, content strategy, audience development, rights protection and advertising monetisation. We use data to understand how audiences are responding and continually refine how content is packaged, distributed and monetised across platforms and markets.

That operates at significant scale. Today, Merzigo manages more than 6,000 official channels across YouTube and Facebook, in more than 30 languages, generating more than 17 billion monthly views, supported by a global team of more than 500 specialists.

After years of working with premium IP, we have developed a very detailed understanding of what makes content work in a digital environment – which moments stop people scrolling, what drives sharing, and how audiences respond to different formats and stories in different markets.

-PRODU: How does Merzigo turn an existing content library into a source of digital revenue?

Yigit Dogan Celik: We believe there is significant untapped value in established content libraries. With the right strategy and team behind them, these assets can reach new audiences and generate new revenue.

The key is to treat a library as a living digital business, rather than simply putting existing content online. That means finding the right audiences, localising content for different markets and continually learning from how people respond to it.

A good example is Turkish teen drama series Medcezir for client WBITVP, which had sat on the shelf for 10 years. We launched new channels and within 12 months, they’d earned 314M views and seven-figure revenue. We have now grown the network to 8 channels which are performing strongly. That is the difference an active digital strategy can make to established IP.

Our model is based on revenue sharing, so our interests are directly aligned with those of the content owner. We manage the operation and the investment required to bring the content to new audiences, while the partner retains ownership of the underlying rights. This gives rights holders a way to generate additional value from their existing library without having to build the technology, teams and infrastructure themselves.

We then use our technology, data and experience to optimise the content across the entire journey – from editing and thumbnails through to localisation, publishing, monitoring and performance. It is that combination of human expertise and continuous optimisation that turns an existing library into a growing digital revenue stream.

-PRODU:  What role do technology, rights management, and monetisation play within Merzigo’s business model?

Yigit Dogan Celik: They are the infrastructure that allows us to operate content at scale, each has a very clear purpose: technology helps us operate efficiently, rights management protects the value of the IP, and monetisation turns audience engagement into revenue.

Our technology connects the content lifecycle from editing and localisation through to publishing, audience insights, rights protection and revenue reporting. That gives our teams the ability to manage thousands of channels while making decisions based on real-time performance.

Protecting our partners’ IP is equally important. Our dedicated rights protection team monitors platforms for unauthorised use, identifies infringements and takes action to protect the content. Today, we manage and protect across our network, giving rights holders greater visibility and control over where and how their IP is being used.

On the commercial side, our teams use audience and performance data to understand what is working and where there is an opportunity to improve reach, engagement and revenue. For a rights holder, the value is in having all three working together: the technology to operate at scale, the people and processes to protect the IP, and the expertise to turn audience attention into commercial value.

-PRODU: What is your vision for Latin America?

Latin America represents one of the most exciting growth opportunities in digital content today, and Merzigo has been building its presence and expertise in the region for some time. We see an enormous opportunity to help rights holders turn the region’s exceptional storytelling and IP into sustainable digital businesses, both locally and globally.

The opportunity is to move beyond simply licensing content into actively distributing and operating it. Traditional licensing can put a title into a market; digital distribution allows you to build a direct relationship with audiences and learn from how they engage with the content.

We have seen this first-hand with Midsomer Murders. We launched a new Spanish-language channel targeting Latin America and Spanish-speaking US audiences, alongside managing the main Midsomer Murders channel. By localising the content experience through tailored thumbnails, metadata and positioning, Merzigo unlocked an under-served fandom and expanded the title’s reach in Spanish-speaking markets. This is a strong example of how established IP can find a new and significant audience through digital platforms.

YouTube is now much more than a marketing platform for content owners – it can be a primary revenue line in its own right. Across Latin America, we see a major opportunity to help rights holders build digital businesses around their existing IP, combining localisation, audience development, rights management and monetisation.

Latin America has exceptional storytelling, production talent and globally relevant IP. Our role is to help that content travel further – within the region and beyond – while helping rights holders build a direct relationship with audiences and capture more of the value that relationship creates.

-PRODU:  What advantages does a major player gain by outsourcing this operation to Merzigo rather than managing it in-house?

Yigit Dogan Celik: Partnering with Merzigo gives a major player eight years of proven experience and an established operation built for scale. In-house teams are often designed around steady-state operations; ours is built to flex. We can respond quickly to demand spikes, new releases and expansion into new markets without the lead time and investment required to build that capability internally.

Building this kind of operation in-house takes years. With Merzigo, the infrastructure, technology and teams are already in place, allowing partners to move faster and avoid the cost and complexity of building everything themselves.
There is also a strong alignment of incentives. An in-house operation is largely a fixed cost, whereas Merzigo operates on a revenue-share model. We earn when our partners earn, so we have a direct commercial incentive to improve performance, grow audiences and maximise the value of the content.

And because we are an external partner, we can bring an objective perspective. We can look at existing processes, identify what is working and what is not, and make changes without some of the internal constraints that can slow transformation.
With operations across more than 30 languages and markets, we also bring local expertise while giving partners the ability to scale internationally.

-PRODU: How much of Merzigo’s success depends on technology, and how much depends on human expertise in content and audiences?

Yigit Dogan Celik: It is not really a question of technology versus human expertise. Technology gives us the scale and speed to operate across thousands of channels and markets; our people make the decisions about what will work.

Content does not travel in exactly the same way from one market to another. The right format, edit, thumbnail, title or even the moment we choose to highlight can be very different depending on the audience. For example, what works for a drama audience in Latin America may need to be packaged and localised differently from the same content in another market. Our teams understand those cultural nuances and use data to make those decisions.

Technology then allows us to put those decisions into action at scale – automating processes, analysing performance, supporting localisation and giving our teams the information they need to continually improve.

AI is increasingly important within that technology layer. We use it to accelerate areas such as content analysis, localisation and workflow automation. But we see AI as a tool that makes our people more effective, not as a replacement for their judgement.

Ultimately, technology helps us move faster and operate at scale. People make the calls. It is the combination of the two that allows us to understand audiences and make content work across different markets.

PRODU: What does it mean to Merzigo to be a sponsor of Premios PRODU 2026?

Yigit Dogan Celik: Premios PRODU is now in its tenth year, and over that decade it has become one of the clearest reflections of what Latin American entertainment has built – and where it is heading. Supporting the Décima Edición is our way of standing behind that.

Our commitment to the region is operational rather than symbolic. We have been building our presence and our teams here, and we now work with some of the most significant catalogues produced in Latin America, including award-winning drama that is still finding new audiences internationally years after it first aired. That work has taught us a great deal about the region’s creative community, and it has only strengthened our conviction about the opportunity here.

Awards recognise the moment a piece of work is made. Much of what we do begins after that moment -making sure the best of it keeps reaching new audiences long after the credits roll. Being part of a night that celebrates the people creating that work matters to us, and we’re proud to support it.