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Pay Tv Porter's 5 Forces

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The Pay TV industry in the US is changing rapidly. There are five main forces according to Porter that can describe this. The first four surround the fifth which is competitive rivalry. These forces help decide if a market is profitable. (Mindtools) The first force is the threat of new entry. In the Pay TV industry, it would be difficult and expensive to enter the market. The barriers to entry involves costly infrastructure that is already controlled by the big players in the market. Whether programming is coming over cable, fiber, DSL, or satellite dish, the costs to implement this infrastructure is very high. The cost to launch a satellite in 1997 was $51 million, which would be close to $80 million in present dollars (DISH). The threat of new entry is low. The second force is supplier power. The product delivered by Pay TV is programming. The TV stations that create the product have a strong bargaining position regarding their content. The PAY TV companies have little say in what the programming contains, and mostly act as a conduit. Very popular channels could force providers to charge more for that channel if they want to provide …show more content…

Comcast holds about 20% of the market, Direct TV holds about 20%, and DISH holds about 14%, and so does Time-Warner Cable. Customer satisfaction with Pay TV providers is dropping across all competitors (The ACSI) which suggest low customer loyalty held in check by limited choices in many areas, or an inability for the consumer to see much difference between companies. Competitors have huge infrastructure investments that many not be salvageable causing a high barrier to exit. Also, the end product, TV, is largely the same between competitors. Rivalry is very high as no one holds a huge competitive advantage. It is likely very difficult to make a sustained profit in this market over the long term, and expanding to new markets may be the best choice to move

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