San Clemente Cable Network, Inc

• Main Author: Dumlao, Marco G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2002
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/4562
• Institution: De La Salle University

SAN CLEMENTE CABLE NETWORK, INC. (SCCNI) is a cable television provider incorporated in October of 1994. It aims to be a leading cable television provider in the Northern Part of the Province of Tarlac. The company currently operates in the Municipality of Camiling. Commercial operations began June of 1994. It now has a subscriber base numbering One Thousand Three Hundred Fifty (1,350). Being in the business for seven years, it foresees its existing market to be near saturation level. It is concerned with future growth and how to sustain profit level. Expansion of its existing areas of operation is the solution management is proposing. The company has already secured the local franchises to operate in six Municipalities all in the province of Tarlac with a combined potential of five thousand (5,000) subscribers. A number of issues hounds the industry and may drastically change its present form. There are two crucial bills pending in Congress: Cable TV bill and the Convergence Bill. The cable TV bill will craft the future of the industry in terms of the following issues: advertising, foreign ownership, and signal piracy. Convergence will move different technologies towards a common point and eliminate differences between provisioning of video, voice and data. Added competition may also come as new technologies emerge. A third concern is the present economic condition and remains the biggest issue facing the industry now and into the future. Depressed economic conditions and worsening FOREX rate severely impacts the viability of the industry and threatens its growth and future. Equipment and program cost have nearly doubled in less than two years. With this backdrop, this still speaks well for SCCNI to improve its hold of the market and expand its operations. Some of the problems compounding the industry, does not hold true for SCCNI. However, it should be wary that most of its perceived strength may hold true in the mid-term and its future would depend on how it continues to capitalize on its strength and opportunities of the industry, manage its weaknesses and anticipate changes/threats in the industry in the long-term. The strategies that it would take will dictate its future. A number of key strengths and opportunities bodes well for the company. Strengths include: market niche, low cost and affordable service, lean and flexible organization,and strong government relations. Opportunities include: big untapped market, more downstream services under the converged telecoms arena, horizontal integration, and growth potential of its target market. The company, in the past, has successfully employed a combination of two generic competitive strategies: focus and cost advantage. With stiffer competition in the future, a second support strategy would have to be added--differentiation. Differentiation will come in terms of customer service and program customization. Three options were prepared by management for its fie-year-plan. Each option varies in terms of implementation depending on how the economy will look in the short-term months. If the market deteriorates further, the company may have to forego its expansion plans at least for the time being. In the event the market starts showing signs of recovery, though may be slow, the company could pursue its expansion plans on a selective basis and with caution. A promising outlook of economic and political stability will be an all systems go for its expansion plans.