A Competitiveness Analysis of CATV and IPTV Business

[[abstract]]Through cable, wireless or satellite, TV broadcasting has been for home service for a long time. With the widely prevailing of broadband service, de-regulation, telecom operators also focus on TV service market. This intensifies the market competetiveness. In Taiwan, the CATV is the main TV service provider. Chunghwa Telecom Company, the biggest telecommunication service provider, dominating the telephone user end access network, is also promoting their MOD (Multimedia on Demand) service. Now, it is the main player in IPTV industry. For CATV system operator, how to adapt their market strategy in face of the challenge from IPTV? For IPTV service provider, how to break the market barriers built by CATV system operator? and how to get consumer’s eyes? In this study, the competitiveness of CATV and IPTV service provider has been reviewed through SWOT analysis, and Michael E. Porter’s 5-force analysis, and some strategies have been proposed. Furthermore, the competitiveness of the two, CATV vs IPTV, has been reviewed from consumer’s view points. CATV system features broadband, localized service, very high market penetration; while IPTV features personalized and interactive services, flexibility on time and environment for viewing. We conclude that the best competitive strategy is providing the product and service based on characteristics of the respective media: For CATV system operators, the key strategies are: localization service, community oriented service/product, the promotion of set-top-box, and those business opportubities associated with such strategies. For IPTV operators, the key strategies are: integrating enterprise resources to break the barriers of content deficiency, attracting subscribers on distance education platform, building user-end optical infrastructure for the HDTV service in the future