Course Name-Strategic Management (MGT 489)

Sec-07

Submitted to- Varqa Shamsi Bahar

Date of Submission-4th December, 2016.

Submitted by:

Group Name-Strategy Masters

Group Manager-Syeda Rahanuma Ferdusy Haque

Group members’ details

Name ID

Md.Sujon 1210948030

Sajid Hossain Khan 1230990030

Tanzia Munir 1310080630

Rifat Nahar Ritu 1310303030

Syeda Rahanuma Ferdusy Haque 1310308030

Sadman Sakib Shovon 1310399030

Letter of Transmittal

4th December, 2016.

Mr. Varqa Shamsi Bahar

Faculty, SBE

North South University

Subject: Submission of the Strategic Management Report on ATN News

Dear Sir:

We are grateful to inform you that we have been able to complete our strategic management

report on ATN News.

We tried our level best to prepare and complete this task with our best knowledge and effort.

This was a great opportunity to increase our knowledge and skills about strategic management.

We sincerely hope that we were able to fulfill the requirements. We will always be available and

eager to provide any further details or clarifications if needed.

On behalf of my entire team I am signing the letter of transmittal.

Sincerely,

Syeda Rahanuma Ferdusy Haque

Manager

Team Strategy Masters

Topic Page

Number

Section 1: Company Insight, Research and Analysis 1-15

Current Business Model 1

Different Levels of Management 5

Four Components of the Company’s Mission 6

Firm’s Business 6

Analysis of the valuable resources and capabilities

that results in distinctive competencies

7

Analysis of Competitive Advantage 9

Analysis of Value Chain Activities 11

Section 2; Analyzing the External Business Environment 16-25

Industry, Sector, Strategic Group and competition 16-20

Industry and Sector 16

Direct and Indirect Competitors 17

Different Strategic Group and Analysis of the strategic

group in which ATN news is operating

20

Environmental Analysis 21-25

Macro Environment 21

Micro Environment 22

Analysis of Industry Life Cycle 24

Section 3: SWOT Analysis 26-30

Section 4: Strategic Goals & Recommendation and Strategy Formulation 31-35

Bibliography 36

Executive Summary

As a team we have analyzed ATN news’ business model and the four components of its mission.

We identified the company’s management hierarchy, its resources and value chain model.

Additionally, we reviewed the company’s external business environment, identifying the

company’s competitors and the strategic group it is operating in. Also, the company’s macro and

micro environment was analyzed as well as its life cycle. A SWOT analysis was done based on

this information and a set of goals for the company was proposed. The recommendations were

devised to maximize the company’s profit in the next five years capitalizing on its strengths and

opportunities and focusing on developing new competencies.

As our primary source of information, we have used various online data, articles and cases for our

research purpose. And our secondary and prime source of information was Mr. Al- Amin Khan,

Deputy General Manager of Sales & Marketing, ATN News.

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Section 1: Company Insight, Research and Analysis

ATN News

ATN News is a 24-hour news television channel in Bangladesh. It is a sister company of ATN

Bangla, another Bangladesh satellite TV channel. ATN News broadcasted its first test transmission

on May 1, 2010 and officially went on the air on June 7, 2010. World class Television journalist

and International Media Personality Mishuk Munier joined ATN News as CEO and Chief Editor

in November 2010. He worked with the TV station until his death on August 13, 2011. Noted

Bangladeshi journalist Abed Khan took over the role of CEO and chief editor in 2011; he remained

in that post until his resignation on April 20, 2013. Currently, Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman is the

chairman of ATN News, while Sharker Firoz serves as CEO and advisor and Munni Saha acts as

ATN's Head of news.

Current Business Model

The main purpose of ATN news is to deliver messages/news to the viewer’s. However they have

divided news into different segments, which means they have separate news program for business

news, international news, national news, sports news and so on. Beside news program, they also

have other entertainment show, talk show, health related and youth related programs such as

Follow up, First aid, Amader Kotha, Connecting Bangladesh, Young Nite, Box office, Power Talk

and News Hour Extra. Some of these programs are recorder while are broadcasted live.

News collection:

The news comes from their reporters and other sources such as APTN, Associate Press (AP), and

some authentic international Channels like CNN, BCC, and Aljazeera.

It is the task of the news editor to assign the news reporter to the spots where the incident has

occurred and gather news the night before. This process may include gathering information from

other sources as well. While a cameraman is also assigned to work with the reporter, once these

people finish their work, all the information are brought together in the ATN news station and are

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sorted and selected based on its timeliness, impact, proximity, controversy, oddity, currency and

prominence.

Timeliness: Its deals with the freshness and regency of the information or incidents.

Impact: How many people were affect in the incident.

Proximity: To what degree it will connect the local viewer.

Controversy: Will the news involve the viewers into some sort of conflicts or debate.

Prominence: To what extent the news about affluent people excite the common people who take

great interest in famous people’s lives.

Currency: It deals with talk shows are being tailored in according to viewers’ need.

Oddity: To what extent the information is unusual and extraordinary.

According to our observation in completing the report, unofficially, information is filtered or

chosen based on favoritism. For example: if the channel support certain party they will focus on

broadcasting the party’s news in a positive way.

News content /Reader’s Report and Final Video:

Once the information is gathered, it is passed through these 7 processes mentioned above then the

information is selected and transformed into news by the Editor council team where Mr. Nurul

Amin Probhash, Associate Head of news gives a final check to the content. Meanwhile, the

production editing team edits the raw video and create a final version of the report. In this stage

the contents and videos get ready.

News Presenter and Shooting Sets:

The reporting time for each news presenter is at least 2 hours before the show starts, so that they

can get ready and rehearse the news, as news is broadcasted live. In case of the recorded programs,

the participants will be informed few days prior to the aired date for the shooting. Sets are being

created in the studio or station for shooting. Some sets are fixed and occasionally redecorated. For

the news, the sets remain fixed that is well equipped with latest technology to aid in smooth

broadcasting.

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Broadcasting:

The technical team commonly known as broadcasting team and information technology team play

an important role in the broadcasting process. Each and every step in the broadcasting take place

under the supervision of Mr. Pinaki Roy, Head of Broadcasting.

Broadcasting is always focused on the level of authenticity, credibility and objectivity. News can

be presented in 6 ways:

OOV (OUT OF Vision) - It is a pictorial, graphical or Video based presentation of News. It occurs

mainly in case of emergency news where the reporter and cameraman broadcast news live directly

from the spot. For example: during Terrorist attack, out of vision broadcasting took place.

Package: These is more structural version of broadcasting news where the presenters are given

the news beforehand for rehearsing, besides there is screen in front of them so that they can read

the news from there. In package the presenter starts with 2 or 3 sentences while the headlines are

shown then the presenters read the details news. This segment of news covers all the aspect such

as national news, international news, business news and sports.

Phone- The reporter is present at the spot where the incident has taken place, the broadcasting

station tries to communicate with the reporter live from the stations and the reporter speaks with

the news presenter mainly over phone. Such scenario raises in case of emergency situations such

as capital punishment to the war criminals.

Recording:

Some packages and OOV can be recorded. The senior news producer instruct the team on recording the

news. Recordings are mostly preferable for magazine programs like Follow up, box office, Power talk and

First aid.

Power talk is an interview based talk show, which is hosted by Muni Shah, Head of News, different

topics are electricity, water and energy issues are discussed with the invited guests.

Box Office focuses on media news such as movie review, box office hit movies, jit songs and so

on of Bollywood, Hollywood and Dhallywood.

First aid is a recorded health related program hosted by Faiza Rahela. All these programs are

recorded beforehand.

4

Headline Making:

The news editor with the video editing team makes a report. It shows a background voice reading the

headlines only while the video clips are played according.

Live Programs:

The coordinator and the senior editor along with the head of news sometimes discuss on the topic to be

discussed on the live shows like Young Nite, News Extra Hours, Connecting Bangladesh are broadcasted

live from studio. Phone, Skype and Video conferencing aid in broadcasting the program.

Advertisement:

Time slot are sold to the companies who wants to advertise their product and service. Business to

business level marketing takes place here. They have different rate for various programs. Like at

peak hour 30 sec will cost 11250 TK before news, same will cost 7500 before a specific program

and so on.

Fig: Current Business Model

News

Collection

News

content

Advertising

Broadcasti

ng

5

Different Levels of Management

Different levels of management of a company is important for decision making authority.

Normally a company has three levels of management such as top level, middle level and low level

managers. Top level managers deal with visionary things of a company. Whereas middle level

managers work to accomplish the missionary things of a company. Generally, middle level

managers are the departments’ head of a company. Low level managers do the basic or root work

of a mission. They lead employs through supervising and guiding. ATN News Channel company

is also maintains a same sort of management levels.

ATN News Channel’s CEO and CFO occupy the top-level management position. They are mainly

planning and thinking about ATN NEWS channel’s overall growth. CEO and CFO are also

concentrating on industry growth and their rate of growth. Each and every visionary thing are

judge by them. Middle level managers are head of news, head of sales and marketing, head of

finance and accounts, head of broadcasting operations and engineering (B.O. & E), head of finance

and accounts. The department heads are responsible for their own department’s improvements.

Such as News Head determines the quality of the news. Again, Head of broadcast operation and

engineering thinks about the maximum broadcast reach through the world and operations quality

as well. ATN News Channel’s functional managers or low level managers are editors’ council,

reporters, sports reporters, news presenters, sales and marketing managers, sale & marketing

executives, consultant, broadcast engineer, finance and account managers, deputy managers. Their

roles are so important for the company. They are working on each and every basic work of the

low level

Middle level

Top level CEO,CFO

Head of News

Editors -council

ReportersSportsNews -

presenters

Head of sale &

marketing

ManagerSenior

executivesJunior

executives

Head of B. O. & E

ConsultantBroadcast Engineer

Head of finance & accounts

ManagerDeputy

ManagerJunior

executives

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company. Such as editors’ council scrutinized the news, reporters collect the news on time. Sales

and marketing executive sell the time slots of the company. This is the crucial part of the company.

Every basic level of work is performed by the low-level mangers.

Four Components of the company’s Mission

Mission, Vision & Goal: ATN news does not have any separate mission, vision or goal but

they describe themselves as “A television for the commoners, of the commoners’.

Firm’s Business

ATN News is a 24-hour news channel broadcasting in Bangladesh only. It is a sister company of

ATN Bangla, one of the leading Bangladeshi satellite TV channels. ATN News was launched on

June 7, 2010. This channel has a slogan, “Banglar chobbish ghonta” (24 hours of Bengali). ATN

News’ first test transmission was on May 1, 2010. After one month, the channel was launched

officially.

ATN News mainly broadcasts news in every hour. There are different types of strategies for

broadcasting this news.

They have their prime news for four times a day which is at 8.00, 11.00, 20.00, 23.00 which is in

Bengali and the have news hours for eight times each day which also in Bengali and there is another

type called news now in Bengali that runs for six time a day. They have a news update program

on 2.20pm. They also have News now in English for three times a day and also news at seven and

there is a breakfast news as well. On Friday and Saturday, ATN News have special news stories

on specific topics to grab attention of Bangladesh’s people.

Along with this news programs they air some other programs as well and those are mostly talk

shows. The name of those programs are Editorial, Amader Kotha, Anandaloke, Around the World,

Biz Talk, Box Office, Connecting BD, Corporate, Ei Banglai , Ekdin Protidin , Follow Up, News

7

Hour Xtra, News Uncut, Shopping Bag, Sports Insight, Top of the Week, and Visual Diary Young

Nite

The main source of revenue for is the commercial advertisement. They rent space between or

during programs or news for commercial ads.

Analysis of Valuable Resources and Capabilities which results in distinctive

competencies

The distinctive competencies here are the strengths of a company that allow a company to

differentiate its products and/or achieve lower costs than its rivals. Distinctive Competencies arise

from two complementary sources i.e. resources & capabilities.

Resources: ATN news have the following resources

Tangible Resources: Tangible resources are the equipment that are extremely essential in

broadcasting their shows and news.

Intangible Resources: These includes the experienced and knowledgeable reporters and

employees which act as a strength into the company and help the company gain competitive

advantage. Also, being a sister concern of ATN Bangla, ATN News could access to a large number

of intangible resources as well.

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The intangible resource that ATN news have that is a bunch of experienced and skilled employee

which will tend to create competitive advantage as these employees will not only work to lower

down the firm’s cost with their valuable knowledge but also come with innovative ways to deliver

news or other programs that will tend to create value for the customers as well.

So, these employees cannot be obtained by other rivals which makes it rare and difficult to imitate.

Capabilities: Company’s skills at coordinating its resources and putting them to productive use

ATN News employees are extremely strict in meeting deadlines for their work for which they are

one of the leading News channel in the nation. The organization have strict rules within the station

that none of the employees is being exposed over social medias. It is banned in all of their PC’s

through the system because according to ATN News it kills time and this time could be utilized in

generating and using the browser to come up with something innovative idea that will help them

to increase the rich and increase profitability and profit growth and be more productive.

According to ATN news it has been seen that they come with any news earlier than the other news

channels because of their entire human resource which plays a vital role in gathering data and

transferring them quickly them into news i.e. their capabilities which helps them to work more

efficiently and functions smoothly as result their raise their productivity and ensure profitability

and profit growth and in future these distinctive competencies can further shape strategies which

will help the company to gain competitive advantage and profitability.

9

Analysis of Competitive advantage

Superior Efficiency: ATN news embraces the learning effect. Learning and experience will

increase efficiency and will positively affect the profit growth in the long run. New employee or

interns are assigned to work on different projects with their supervisors, who have more than 10

years of experience. The supervisor exactly knows the easiest possible way to train their

subordinate. For example: A news room editor will work with his/her senior colleague. In this way

training cost are reduced, works can learned and completed faster and at lower cost therefore

increases profitability and profit growth.

On the other hand, the working environment and culture is disciplined and traditional respectively

as they avoid any sort of distraction such as social media, therefore more time is allocated and

dedicated in carrying out the operations. The systems allow 'Lean' Principles to Service Industries.

Therefore ensuring increasing efficiency of the company.

10

Due to reasonable rates and long term contract with their old customer (Other companies), ATN

news is enjoying profitability. The longer they can retain customers the higher the profitability

they can earn. On the other hand, their experienced human resource help them to design their

content and shows through efficient production processes which reduces cost and increases

productivity. All these traits are reinforcing their distinctive competencies.

Customer Responsiveness: ATN news claim themselves as customer oriented rather than being

traditional. They demonstrate leadership and knows customer’s needs. Programs like Young Nite,

First Aid so on are created using customer feedback. They have an extensive useful feedback

system. They encourages customization, for instance programs like First AID , medical health

related Program the topic are chosen based on customer need. Therefore, they are ensuring

differentiation as a result strengthening their resources and capabilities.

Superior Innovation –ATN news identified the trend that most spectators of television are shifting

online therefore along with their information technology team and web development team they

were first to launch separate news channel and separate websites. They provide live stream and

will soon move to digital marketing. Therefore, value is created for customer through

differentiation.

Superior Quality: Being the pioneer in news channel industry ATN news had a strong

reputation for quality that allows them to differentiate their services from those of offered by rivals,

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thereby creating more value in the eyes of customers, and giving ATN News the option of charging

a premium price for its products.

Analysis of Value Chain Activities

Value chain denotes the objectives that there is a chain of activities within the company that the

company must transform into outputs and this creates value for the customers. These chains of

activities incur within two sights Primary Activities and Secondary Activities.

Primary Activities

These are the activities related to the design, creation, and delivery of the service, its marketing,

and its support and after sales service.

R & D

Designing of the content and innovative shows.

The R &D of ATN news mainly works as the idea generation process. The main role here is to

come up with exclusive innovative content as well as shows that will help them to attract the

audience and sell their slots.

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Their great bunch of human resource always design their content and shows through efficient

production processes which reduces cost and increases productivity.

The news content gets constructed, manufactured, exaggerated and unaffected by several matters

or events. This report will highlight some of these factors that impact news production, thereby

giving an insiders' perspective to the whole news production system at ATN news.

Through effective research they always try to build shows in a time where it will reach the

maximum number of audiences so that their reach and TRP increases. One of their successful

efficient production process is young nights that targets a large set of young audiences.

Production

The team of ATN news works continuously for successfully broadcasting the stream of news.

Reporters, producers, editors, video editors, broadcasters, video editors plays an important part for

making a news. The production team works 24 hours a day for catering people with the latest news.

They need to collect then news from different sources, sort out from them, record and the telecast

it. News production occurs in 3 phases

Collection:

There are 3 sources from which ATN news collects news:

(1) APTN, AP (Associate Press),

(2) BBC, CNN

3) Reporters

News editors choose the projects a night before for the reporters and the next morning reporters

and cameramen start their assignment. Their job is mainly to visit and gather news from the place.

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They gather the video tapes from the production team and with the help of the video editors they

download their reports in those video tapes. There are also some emergency reporters and

cameramen who are accessible 24 hours in the station for certain emergency reporting. National

desk reporters gather news from their local correspondents, working in different regions of the

country. These reporter collects news and video clips from their areas and send them to the head

office through email. The International desk reporters collect news from different agencies like

BBC, CNN. Sports reporters sometimes visit the sports ground physically and gather or sometimes

they collect from CNN, BBC or different sports channels. There are people on the desk to create

tickers that is the scrolling headlines.

Selection:

ATN news rely on 7 factors for the selection of their news

1) Timeliness: The news should be timely, should be news, new, fresh to be of use to viewers

2) Impact: ATN news need to think about how many number of people are being affected and how

seriously are they being affected.

3) Proximity: ATN news always try to focus on important occurrences locally than internationally

because it is much closer to the viewers. E.g. elections in our country will be much closely

observed than election in other countries.

4) Controversy: viewers will always try to involve in some sort of conflicts. They always want to

get into a debate and take a position on those conflicts

5) Prominence: Ordinary people are fascinated by the activities of the rich and the well-known as

big names make big news. As anything happening in the life of the famous people make a great

news.

6) Currency: Audience always have the tendency to talk on significant events. So talk shows are

being tailored in according to their need.

7) Oddity: Unusual information becomes a news. For e.g. A baby boy born with three legs is an

unusual phenomenon and it becomes a news.

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Broadcasting:

Broadcasting is a huge procedure and it takes closer look. News is mainly broadcasted by choosing

the right style: Broadcasting is always focused on the level of authenticity, credibility and

objectivity. News can be presented in five ways:

In vision- The news presenter remains in front of the camera and read the very recent news to the

audience

Phone- While the reporter is present at the spot, the broadcasting station tries to communicate

with the reporter live and the reporter speaks with the news presenter

OOV(out of vision): news Is presented via maps, still pictures, graphics and so on. The news

presenter remains outside of the screen and reads out the news ant the video footage is shown as

well. It is of about maximum 20 to 30 seconds long.

After the right style is chosen the video tapes are recorded, the headline are made. Then stings a

remade for current events or new activities and for special news stings as well.

Marketing and Sales

The marketing and the sales department plays a crucial part as well in creating value for the

audiences. As their main job is to sale the time and the slots at a highest price possible and increase

the reach as much as possible. They help to create value by utilizing their skills to come up with

ideas that will help them to enhance the brand of ATN News. They are responsible for sponsoring

many events that will enhance their reach as well. They try to depict audience needs for shows and

try to communicate with the R & D so that they can up with better ways of communicating the

news.

Customer Service

The role of the customer service is communicating with the different cable operator distributors

whether the channel are being displayed well to the audiences. They also provide customer service

by having feedback forms in their websites where the viewers can post feedbacks to ATN News

directly.

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Support Activities:

Materials Management

Logistics plays a vital role in creating value for the audiences. Material Management function

controls the transmission of physical materials through the value chain, from procurement through

production and into distribution. A senior news producer leads the whole news production team

in the news room. One person functions the VTR player and another one operates the auto script.

Senior producer uses a microphone for communicating with the news presenter and the

presentation team. When the news begin, the presentation team hands over the telecasting part to

the production team and after the telecasting it is again given to the presentation team. The person

who controls the VTR player plays accordingly to the instructions of the senior news producer.

There are two VTR players in the news room and the VTR operator also gives direction to the

broadcasting team about which VTR player to use to play the cassette. Another producer controls

the auto scripts. The news presenter reads the news from a monitor. The news presenter has a

microphone that he/she can listen to all the instructions from the senior producer. The senior

producer asks to read his/her news from the auto script. The video editing panel is permanent for

making headlines, upcoming news and the recap. The entire information system team works

efficiently to provide greater customer value.

Human Resource

ATN news is a sister concern of ATN Bangla therefore it has god extremely experienced skilled

employees like the reporters who can use their developed skills to operate in the functions.

Throughout our observation we have found out that the all the top level managers are extremely

senior which indicates that ATN news can utilize their skills to function effectively and also help

other employees to learn from this skilled employee and provide superior customer services

together. The human resource plays the vital part in the value chain model as without the 412

employee of ATN news it will be very difficult for them to run their operation.

Information System

In order to receive television broadcasts there are various parts that are required in order to receive

television broadcasts. This includes an image source, a sound source, a transmitter, a receiver, a

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display device, and a sound device which are all part of the information system. Not only this but

also as it is a satellite TV a good help of information system is needed.

Section 2: Analyzing the External Business Environment

Industry and Sector

In general, the word media refers to various means of communication. It includes television, radio

and the Newspaper etc. In Bangladesh, the media industry is dispersed to different sub-sectors like

the Broadcast media, Advertising media, electronic media, Print media and so on. The constitution

of Bangladesh guarantees the freedom of the media industry in the country. Among this the

broadcast media is the most profitable and booming subsector of the industry as the sector has

been significantly growing since its inception.

ATN News is playing in the media industry of the country and is playing a very strong role in it.

The TV channel is playing its role very strongly in the Broadcast Media specifically. ATN News

is also being transmitted throughout South Asia, the Middle East, North America and Europe now

apart from Bangladesh.

Media Industry

Broadcast Media (TV &

Radio)

Advertising Media

Electronic Media

Print Media

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The broadcast channels can be again divided into further sub-divisions or sectors. In Bangladesh

the broadcast media is mainly consisted of the sub-sectors like Entertainment channels, News

channels, Sports channels. And as the name says, ATN News playing in the industry as a news

channel. This sector is a newly emerging sector of the industry. This particular sector has

comparatively lesser numbers of competitors playing in the market and ATN News utilized the

leverage of the relatively less competition and established itself as one of the strong player in the

industry.

Direct & Indirect Competitors

The competitive environment of an industry has a strong influence on the performance of

businesses within that industry. The business’s success depends heavily on the way it tackles its

direct competitors and prevents its indirect competitors from becoming a threat. We have looked

from the point of view of the customers while analyzing the competitive environment of ATN

News. ATN News’s direct competitors are the other TV news channels that broadcast news 24*7.

These all news channels also air the same kind of programs other than news. For instance all of

them telecast talk shows regarding many burning topics and also they broadcast programs that

News

News

SportEntertainment

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revolve around investigative journalism. Currently there are a total of 5 TV news channel that are

the direct competitors of ATN News.

Name Description

Ekattor TV The first full HD 24/7 news and current affairs

channel in Bengali. The channel started official

broadcasting in 21 June 2012. This was

Bangladesh’s fourth TV news channel.

Shomoy TV Shomoy TV is one of the pioneering 24-hour news

oriented television channels in Bangladesh. it has

commercially been on-air since 17 April 2011

Channel 24 Channel 24 is a general information television

channel in Bangladesh. It was launched on 24 May

2012, and is owned by Times Media LTD

Independent TV It is owned by one of Bangladesh's largest

conglomerate Beximco. It started airing in

February 2012.

News24 TV A new 24 hours HD news channel owned by East

West Media Group in Bangladesh. It was launched

in 28 July 2016.

Among these TV channels News24 TV is relatively new, other than this channel, all other TV

news channels are competing with ATN news fiercely. Based on Television Rating Point (TRP)

calculated by Serious Media Research Company LTD in May, 2016 the percentage of viewership

among this channels are shown below with a pie chart.

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Here we can see that although ATN news has the most number of viewers, the competition among

ATN News, Ekattor TV, Shomoy TV and Channel 24 is very close. So if ATN news wants to stay

ahead of the curve, it should try to gain more competitive advantage.

According to Business Dictionary, indirect competitors are those firms, who offer different kinds

of products or services than ATN News does but satisfy the same needs. The indirect competitors

of ATN news are the TV channels that offer news as part of their broadcasting schedule, along

with other programs. Furthermore, the online newspapers like BDnews24, BanglaNews24 are also

indirect competitors of ATN news, because they do too deliver news 24*7. Moreover, these days

the printed newspapers also have online versions of themselves. Most popular newspapers with

online versions are Prothom Alo, Amar Desh, and Ittefaq. They also constantly post news

throughout the day. So they are also indirect competitors for ATN news.

Among TV channels the largest indirect competitors of ATN news are mentioned below.

Channel i Rtv Ntv Desh TV Ekushe TV Channel 9

Gtv Bangla Vision Boishakhi

TV

SA TV Masranga TV Jamuna TV

24%

23%

22%

20%

10%

2%

Comperative TRP

ATN News Ekattor TV Shomoy TV Channel 24 Independent TV News24 TV

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Lastly, ATN Bangla, a channel of ATN group, is also an indirect competitor of ATN news. Their

level of popularity is much higher than ATN news and they also broadcast news hourly. Overall,

ATN News should be wary of its indirect competitors as well to operate successfully.

Strategic groups

A Strategic group indicates or includes a group of companies who are very close competitors as

they follow the same strategy and are targeting the same customer group. Also a strategic group

have similar characteristics for example they have similar product or service quality, distribution

channel and market segments to serve and also the same sort of technology and customer services.

A strategic group has almost similar pricing method.

Each of the strategic group may counter a different set of opportunities and threats but each of the

companies from a strategies groups will face similar opportunity and threats.

In Bangladesh there are different strategic groups in the media industry based on different the

target groups and strategies. There are different group of television channels. One of those group

multifunction channels where all sort of programs like news, drama, sport, shows, music, and many

more are shown. For example NTV, ATN Bangla, Channel I, Gazi TV, Ekushe TV and soon.

There are some channels they only focus on news related programs for example ATN News,

Shomoy TV, News24 and so on. There are also other group who follow the different category like

music base, Movie base, serial base etc.

Strategic group for ATN News

ATN News is a fully news based satellite channel. They only focuses on News and news related

shows. In this group the close rivals are Shomoy TV, News24, Ekattor Television and few others.

They have the same target market. They focuses the audience who are looking for updated and

instant news. Their strategies are pretty similar. The programs they run are also pretty much

similar.

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The reason why ATN News is operating in this strategic group is because the demand for updated

news is very high in our country. People are very much concern about the tv news for getting the

up to date news. Therefore ATN News started its journey with a dedication of focusing on news

only.

Environmental Analysis

Macro-Environmental Analysis

Like all other industries in the country, the media industry is also significantly affected by various

external factors like the political and economic condition of the country, legal issues, global factors

and so on. Hence eventually the broadcast channels like ATN News are also widely affected.

Political issues

The effect of the political issues is very significant on the industries of Bangladesh and the media industry

is no different. When the political condition of the country faces ups and downs, the media especially the

news sector of the media industry can be significantly affected, this can have both positive and negative

influence in the industry. During any political turmoil, the TRP rate of the broadcast channels is bound to

go up as they continuously work on letting the people aware with latest news as fast as they can. Only the

other hand, the political issues like change in the government system can impact the industry and its

channels in negative way as well since change in the government may be accompanied with changes in the

legal system of the country and in the rules and regulations for the broadcast media.

Legal issues

The media industry is such a vast industry hence it is pretty much obvious that it will take immense

amount of investment in order to make an entry in the market and get hold onto it. As such one

needs to go through many formal steps in order to open a new broadcast channel and the process

is very time consuming as well. Since the media industry plays a very sensitive role for the country

so like any other government, our government is also very particular and strict about permitting

any new channels in the field. Moreover, though the constitution of the country has ensured

freedom of the media through ample rules and acts like Press Council ACT of 1974 but the Article

39(2) also makes the enjoyment of this right subjected to certain reasonable restrictions for the

national security and international relationship purpose. Hence the channels are needed to abide

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by these rules and they are continuously monitored by the authority. Hence the legal issues raises

the entry barrier for the new entrants protecting the existing ones at the same time makes the

survival of the existing ones harsh at the same time.

Economic condition

The economic condition of the country greatly affect the industry without any doubt. The industry

booms with the acceleration of the country’s economy and vice versa happens when the growth of

the economy of the country goes down. The industry is also greatly affected by the global

economic condition as well and it’s a proportional relationship.

Micro- Environment Analysis

Micro environment factors, are factors close to a business that have a direct impact on its business

operations and success. Before deciding on any corporate, business and functional level strategy

ATN News should carry out a full analysis of their micro environment. The main factors to be

considered here are mentioned below.

Competitors Customers

Suppliers

Public

Employees

Employees:

ATN News has a total of 56 permanent employees. The team is led by Mr. Sarkar Feroz Uddin,

who is the advisor cum CEO of ATN News. They follow line organizational structure. There are

no union among the employees. After talking to multiple employees of ATN News we felt that the

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employee satisfaction is high in ATN news. The recruitment policy is also transparent and fair.

They currently have six news presenters, and six reporters, who are holding the positions of senior

reporters and reporters.

Customers:

As a news channel their customers are the general mass of all market segments. ATN news has a

large number of viewers. The TRP of ATN News in May, 2016 was 1680. Furthermore, many

companies that broadcast their advertisements via ATN news are also its customers. ATN news

works as an advertising platform for these companies.

Competitors:

The best way for a company to grasp the full range of its competition is to take the viewpoint of a

buyer. The competitive environment of ATN News is very close. ATN News’s direct competitors

are the other TV news channels that broadcast news 24*7. On the other hand, indirect competitors

of ATN news are the TV channels that offer news as part of their broadcasting schedule, along

with other programs, online newspapers, and online versions of printed newspapers.

Public:

According to Philip Kotler, “A public is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or

impact on a company’s ability to achieve its objectives.” The environmentalists, civil rights group,

pressure groups, and local people are some groups of people that can impact ATN news’s ability

to achieve objectives. ATN News has to keep this groups of people in mind while performing its

operations. For instance before broadcasting any news, the authorized personnel must make sure

that the news is not presented in any way that can hurt the religious feelings of the public.

Furthermore, they have to consider how public perceive their presentation.

Suppliers:

ATN News is a news broadcasting channel, so its suppliers are sources of information that they

use. Sometimes the new sources are the reporters themselves, and sometimes the sources are

unanimous. However, before broadcasting any news the review team must make sure that the

information is legitimate. They also maintain a healthy and professional relationship with their

information suppliers.

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Analysis of Industry Life Cycle

Industry life cycle consists of four stages. These stages include introduction, growth, maturity and

decline. Each and every industry must go through this stages. In introduction stage, an industry is

in its infancy. In that stage an industry may consists of only one entrepreneurial company or even

a proven company. Here the success of the company is unproven and the pioneer company may

incur huge cost or may enjoy absolute monopoly. Here sale is very low and the company or the

industry does not enjoy economies of scale. But if the industry succeeds then the company may

cluster in the next stages.

In Bangladesh, TV channel industry also facing a same industry life cycle. TV channel industry in

its introduction stage also faced low sale, lack of awareness, high price. In 1964, the first television

signal broadcast was done by state-owned television network by PTV. Then BTV had a virtual

monopoly until late 90s. In growth stage, the industry requires significant amount of capital

investment. Here company needs to differentiate its offering from competitors within the industry.

Because companies find themselves in a cluster in that stage. In the late 90s TV channel industry

also faced the growth stage. Here a number of TV channels started their operations to grow the

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market. These TV channel companies include Asian Television Network (ATN), Channel I, NTV

and so on. Their entrance in the television industry crates a hype for the industry. The growth stage

of the television industry precedes by those multiproduction company. Being a leader of the growth

stage, Asian Television Network (ATN) got awards from different institutions. In the third stage

of industry life cycle is maturity stage. Here the companies in an industry faces a huge transition.

From growth to maturity stage, it’s not a smooth one to cross. In this stage the industry curve

become noticeably flatter. Company faces slow growth compare to growth stage. A new type of

competition arises from late entrants. Late entrants in an industry try to steal market share from its

competitors. In TV channel industry, the maturity stage approaches in the middle of 2000s. Here

the industry became matured when the TV industry got maximum reach in customer segments. A

number of late entrants such as ATN News, Banglavision, Boishakhi Tv, Channel 9, Channel 16,

Diganta Tv, GTV and so on. They made the market more competitive. Here the demand of the

channel was not increasing but the number of channels were increasing very rapidly. In decline

stage of an industry life cycle poor performance company compelled to leave the industry. But in

TV channel industry decline occurs because of disruptive technology. Availability and usage of

internet make the TV channel customers saturated. Internet technology almost grasp the market.

TV channel customers become saturated because of internet. Internet provides everything just

within a second. For that reason, TV channel pursuing focused strategy to keep their customers.

For example, Asian Television network is pursuing ATN News channel to focus the customers

who only considered TV as getting news. But overall, TV channel industry is in decline stage in

industry life cycle.

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Section 3: SWOT Analysis

Strengths

ATN News is one of the most popular news channel in Bangladesh. Behind the success of this

channel there are lots of factors that help them to grow. The company has some positive internal

factors which is strengths. Let’s discuss some of the strengths of ATN News.

1. Strong Brand Image:

ATN News has a strong brand image among the media industry of Bangladesh. They have the

highest TRP among the news based channels in Bangladesh. That means ATN News has the

SWOT

Positive

Factors

Negative

Factors

Internal

Factors

Strengths 1. Strong Brand Image

2. Pioneer News based TV

channel in BD

3. Strong Marketing &

Sales

4. Friendly office

environment

5. Well trained and talented

stuffs

Weaknesses 1. Lack of Infrastructure

2. High price rate for ad space

3. Limited Research and

development for ensuring

innovation

4. Lack of variety in programs

External

Factors

Opportunities 1. Market size is growing

2. The Economic growth is

also increasing

3. Broadcasting

Technology is improving

4. Literacy rate is

increasing in this country

5. People are getting more

involved with internet

Threats 1. Intense competition among the

media( news channels) industry

2. International television

channels are grabbing the

existing market

3. Relation between regulatory

people and the journalists is not

good

4. Change in government might

lead to competitors having

more clout

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most number of viewers. ATN news is a sister company of ATN Bangla which is another

famous satellite channel of Bangladesh and it gives an additional value to the brand image of

ATN news.

2. Pioneer News Based Channel:

ATN News is pioneer news channel in Bangladesh. It has started it journey in 2010. Since then

this is known as the first 24 hours news channel of Bangladesh. Therefore they are enjoying

the first mover advantage in this industry. So this is one of the big strength for ATN News.

3. Strong Marketing & Sales Department:

Marketing and sales department is the most important part for any company. ATN News is

privileged because they have a very powerful marketing and sales department along with a

strong and experience marketing and sales team. They ensure the brand image, sales and the

profitability of ATN News.

4. Friendly office environment:

One of the key strength for ATN News is their organization culture as well as their office

environment. All the employees of ATN News are very cooperative and friendly. The gap

between lower level managers and the higher level managers is low. Therefore they can ensure

the efficiency by reducing bureaucracy thus they achieve their profitability.

5. Well trained and talented stuffs:

A company cannot do well in their business if the employees are not efficient enough. The

human resources or personnel of a company can bring the profitability for the firm. ATN News

is known for having the most talented group of employees in every organization. They have

they most renowned journalists, reporters and others stuffs which one of the great strength for

ATN News.

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Weakness

Although there are lots of strengths that ATN News has but still they are struggling with some of

their weaknesses. These weaknesses are the negative internal factors that drawback their

profitability which they should overcome for ensuring their profitability and profit growth. Here

are some weakness of ATN News are discussed below.

1. Lack of Infrastructure:

One of major weakness for ATN News is their lack of infrastructure. They have only two main

workstations and three sub workstations. Therefore sometimes it creates different problems for

them to deal with many programs.

2. High price rate for ad space:

Another major weakness for ATN News is to charge high price rate for renting ad space. The

market is having tough competition in pricing. So it is important to have low price to achieve

profitability. ATN News is struggling for not being able to make their price low.

3. Limited Research and development for ensuring innovation:

ATN News is also struggling with their research and development sector which is a big

weakness for them. They need to improve their research and development department for

ensuring continuous improvement in quality and also for ensuring their innovation so that they

can achieve their profitability and profit growth.

4. Lack of variety in programs:

Although they have very strong command in their news programs and they provides good

quality news but the problem is they have very little variation in their programs. People

might have different preference but they don’t have significant difference in their

programs. They should bring more variation in their programs for ensuring greater TRP as

well as having higher profitability.

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Opportunities

1. Market size is growing:

One of the major opportunity for ATN News will be the growth of media industry. The market

size is expanding from urban area to sub urban or rural area.

2. The Economic growth is also increasing:

Another big opportunity for media industry is that the economy of Bangladesh is growing

rapidly. So mass people can buy a TV and rent for a satellite cable connections. So for ATN

news it can be a great opportunity to grab a new market.

3. Broadcasting Technology is improving:

One of the most important and good thing for the media industry is that the improvement of

broadcasting technology. Now-a-days even showing a live telecast has become very easy.

Collecting news & information and reaching them to the mass people is way easier than ever.

4. Literacy rate is increasing in this country:

The literacy rate of Bangladesh is increasing very quickly. People now understand the

importance of day to day news. They do search for good quality news every day. So this is a

very good news for ATN News as news based channels.

5. People are getting more involved with internet:

The biggest trend for this country right now is internet. Almost everyone is engaging with

internet is various ways. People may skip watching TV but they do not miss using internet.

The social media is one of the biggest market for media industry. For ATN News this can a

blue ocean.

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Threats

1. Intense competition among the media( news channels) industry:

The competition among the rival is very high which can be a huge threat for ATN News.

Because of this competition they faces continuous pressure from the rivals for lowering their

price.

2. International television channels are grabbing the existing market:

There are lots of international television channels specially the Indian channels like Zee

Bangla, Star Jolsha, Star Plus, Sony and others are taking away the market share of local

companies. This is a huge threat for the local companies.

3. Relation between regulatory people and the journalists is not good:

In this country the relationship between the journalists and the government or the regulatory

body is not good. There is always a clash between them that make the job tough for the

reporters. Furthermore there is no clear and strict law for protecting the rights of journalist.

Though a few law are there but the practice of them is missing.

4. Change in government might lead to competitors having more clout:

Change in government can be a great threat for the industry. The channels cannot make long

term plans in many areas because of this uncertainties.

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Section 4: Strategic Goals & Recommendation and Strategy

Formulation

Strategic Goals: To double the TRP margin within the next 5 years.

Recommendations:

Increase customer base via offering something new

Acquire untapped customer segments like those people who get their news via news

websites

Expand globally

Make innovative uses of technologies

Improve the quality of broadcasted contents

To improve the quality

Social activities

Government activities

Affiliate more with more cultural an creative association

Hire more new employees through a proper hiring process who can contribute in better

idea generation process and come up with innovative and superior ideas for the channel.

Creating of their own application software.

Entering into an alliance to distribute their content

Make more effective and creative programs where other channels are making right now

depending on the atmosphere and the viewers’ requirements.

Give more concentration on using updated technologies that makes the operations of the

organization faster where other channels have already converted them in HD (High

Definition) technology.

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Semi-skilled human resources should be trained up to run the organization smoothly

because there is a gap in professionalism.

Marketing strategies should be more dynamic, advanced and updated to capture the

maximum portion of the target market. Online marketing mediums such as face book,

twitter, and yahoo perhaps are used to make more people noticed about the company.

It should introduce itself in the social work field in Bangladesh as Corporate Social

Responsibility.

In terms of reach and share, distribution is not satisfactory at all in urban and rural area

both.

Business Level Strategy:

Broad Differentiation Strategy: They could make the talk shows they telecast different

from other channels. They could make shows which will offer investigative journalism but

with a hint of comedy, like one of the most popular talk shows of current era “Last Week

Tonight with John Oliver”. It can also be considered as focus differentiation strategy. This

will help ATN News to create overall demand and capture more market share from the

rivals.

Focus Strategy: They should conduct some news programs related to specialized fields.

For instance they can broadcast weekly programs that will discuss about the new studies

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made in the field of physics/chemistry/biology/pharmaceutical science/finance. It will

allow ATN news to attract new loyal viewers. Because no other Bangladeshi news channels

are broadcasting such shows.

y

Corporate Level Strategy:

Diversification Strategy:

Leveraging competency of ATN Bangla where ATN News can use its distinctive

competency to create a new business unite in different industry. These will tend to lower

cost structure and increase differentiation as they can pool, share and utilize skilled people,

equipment and so on.

Sharing resources and capabilities:

Acquisition Strategy: Although ATN News has an official website, where they offer news

as small video clips, they are still struggling to reach the customers who like get their news

by reading online newspapers. So ATN News should acquire online newspapers like

BDNews24.com. It will give ATN News the customer base of BDNews24.com.

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Strategic Outsourcing: Where the value chain activities of ATN News can be performed

by independent, specialist companies for e.g. Digital Media Marketing. This will tie to

lower cost structure as the price paidicient to the specialist company is less than the cost

that ATN News will incur in performing the activities themselves. This is mainly because

of lower wages as well as the specialist companies are more efficient. This will lead to

enhanced differentiation as the quality of the activity performed by the specialist company

must be of greater value. On the other hand ATN News can focus on their core business

that is performing those tasks that have the largest potential to create value and enhance

competitive advantage and also will be able to push out the efficient frontier.

Technology Strategy:

ATN news requires extreme use of scientific knowledge especially in the production part of the

entire business model. They should embrace more enhanced technology that would tend to lower

down their cost level.

First Mover in Bangladesh: ATN News has an official YouTube channel. They can use it to

show travel documentaries with 360 degree camera. Use of 360 degree camera is still very new in

Bangladesh. So if they can successfully use it to their advantage and give their viewers a new

experience, they will surely hold a competitive edge over their competitors.

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ATN News can enter into an alliance with the most popular television channel to distribute their

content.

Functional Level Strategy:

Functional Level Strategy aimed at improving the effectiveness of improving the operation of the

company and its ability to attain superior efficiency, superior quality, superior innovation n and

superior customer responsiveness. Focus on different functional area to improve the competitive

advantage.

Superior Quality: Before broadcasting any news they should check the authenticity of that news

thoroughly. They should make sure that the presenters are professional and knowledgeable. Now

a days many channels offer hourly even half hourly news, but the presence of quality in their

reporting seem to be missing.

Superior Customer Responsiveness: They should take customers’ opinions more seriously. There

should be a hotline where viewers can share their concerns and suggestions. If they become more

responsive to their viewers, they will gain more loyalty.

Global Strategy:

Localization Strategy: ATN News should expand their operations in countries like UK, USA and

UAE, where large number of Bangladeshis reside. They can cater the news for those people and

telecast programs they want. There won’t be any cost to lower the cost structure.

Bibliography

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SAQGMI_MH&s=1

(n.d.). ATN Nes Facebook Page. Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/pages/ATN-

News/136156083113182?__mref=message_bubble

Khan, R. R. (n.d.). News Production in a Private Channel in Bangladesh: an Insider's View. Retrieved from

http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10361/774/Ridwan%20Rouf%20Khan.PDF?s

equence=4&isAllowed=y