Market entry strategy for a digital TV operator in India

Abstract

Indian TV transmission which has predominantly been over analog cable until now, shall soon transition to digital transmission by the 31st December 2014. Given the capital intensive nature of the digitization process the Government has approved hiking FDI limit from the existing 49% to 74% across all TV distribution platform. Given the growth potential global DTH players like DirectTV, LibertyGlobal and ComCast from US, Bell TV from Canada, BSAT from Japan, Tricolour from Russia and Foxtel from Australia are all looking forward to gaining a foothold in the Indian DTH and cable TV sector. This report therefore tries to suggest a market entry strategy for a new foreign player who plans to enter the Indian Pay-TV market through the FDI route. The report views this problem as a Strategic Marketing Management exercise and follows the framework suggested in the literature to analyze the problem. Specifically, the report does an external market analysis comprising of customer, competitor, market and environmental analysis and draws out strategic implications from the above analysis. Further, key trends from global markets are also identified and those are used to draw inferences on what might happen in the Indian Pay-TV market. With inputs from the external market analysis, the report uses frameworks like the Ansoff s Product / Market matrix, Porter s generic strategies and strategies suggested in competitive warfare to draw out a top level corporate strategies for the firm. These corporate strategies are then mapped to marketing level strategies by defining the Customer Value Proposition; Segmentation / Targeting and Positioning for the firm and then drawing out strategies for the 7P s of services marketing. Key top-level recommendations given to the new entrant in this report are as follows ? Leapfrog the competition by introducing latest technology that helps gain cost advantages while also enabling it to offer superior service to its customers ? Follow the Differentiation Focus strategy while targeting high ARPU market segments ? Develop the market to gain a beachhead from where it could penetrate further Specifically, in terms of products and services that the firm shall is advised to ? Bundle superior value added services including broadband and telephony at a price point that costs the customer less than what it would have been had he subscribed to these services individually. ? Track technology and consumer trends and provide superior value added service like TV Everywhere, cloud based DVR services etc ? Lobby for commercial interoperability of STB to help customers to switch over ? Partner with CE vendors and CE showrooms to sell Pay-TV offering