MTV Networks Case

1. What strategy did MTV pursue when it initially started to expand internationally? What assumptions were managers at MTV making about foreign markets at the time?

MTV had started to expand internationally back in 1987. During its initial expansion to international market, its strategy was to pursue European market by piping single feeds across Europe (Rugman, 2001). The feeds solely consisted of American programming with English-speaking hosts. At the time, managers at MTV assumed that their strategy would make European viewers flock the channel. Unfortunately, their strategy was not successful (Hill & Jones, 2009). The failure was attributed to the fact that European viewers shared similar interest with the American viewers; they had a taste in local programming. As such, the European viewers wanted music from specific scenes from specific countries.

2. Why strategy does MTV pursue today? What are the benefits of this strategy? What are the costs?

Since 1995, MTV has changed its strategy of expanding into international markets. The channel has opted to target local programming ensuring that it meets specific needs of viewers at local level. For instance, in order to make the localization successful, the company provides regional feeds (Douglas& Craig, 2005). Europe is broken into twenty five feeds and Asia into ten feeds that target specific local taste of the viewers. This strategy has benefited the company in various ways. For example, evolution of digital and satellite has rendered local programming easy and cheap (Hill, 2006). MTV is now able to beam several feeds of a single satellite transponder. Moreover, the strategy has ensured that the network captures its viewers back from local imitators. This has made MTV increase its ratings enabling it to capture significant advertising revenues from other multinational like Coca-Cola.

3. What must MTV do, in terms of its management and organization, to implement its current strategy?

In order fro MTV to implement its current strategy on diverse brand base, it must conduct a survey that would ensure that the company understands specific needs of all of its brands, divisions, and businesses (Barnard, 2007). It must invest in processes that works in every business functions while at same time allows for flexibility based on strategy, structure and available resources.