SWOT Analysis of HBO

HBO is a child company of Home Box Office Inc. which is owned by Time Warner. It is America based cable and satellite television business which got established in the year 1972. HBO has an established business in the US and across the globe as well. There are a total of 130 million subscribers in the world. The target market for HBO is mainly the youth between the ages of 15-35. It has created a unique positioning in the market of bringing the latest Hollywood movies.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of HBO :

This helps in understanding the core areas of the business where it beats the competition and has the competitive advantage in the market. The business should use its strength to create differentiation in the market. Strengths are generally the core competency of the business.

1. Broadcasting of Latest Movies – HBO broadcasts mostly the latest movies in the Hollywood. This brings a complete advantage to the brand in comparison to the other broadcasting channels and hence it is able to get more subscribers
2. Global presence – HBO has a global presence and hence it helps in building the brand reputation that the products are exported internationally. It is present in close to 150 countries which is almost the entire world.
3. Strong Brand Recognition and Recall – Being present in 150 countries definitely call for high brand recognition. It has a high recall, as well as consumers, relate to the brand easily with simple cues.
4. Self-production – HBO is also in the business of producing its own shows. It creates motion pictures. The world’s most popular series called Games of Thrones is produced by HBO itself.
5. HBO GO – It has also provided the customers with the feature called HBO GO which allows them to provide their customers with the cloud access and they can access the movies from anywhere and at anytime

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of HBO :

This is the pain area of the organization where it does not have the resources or skills. Business has to work upon these areas so that they are not left behind from the competition. Though there will be some or the other weakness it should not be an area which takes the business pout off the market

1. Censorship – There are a couple of censorships on the shows and hence this needles the customers as they are not able to watch the shows.
2. Price – HBO GO is a very interesting feature but at the same time not everybody can take advantage of it as the price is too high
3. Out Dated Technology – HOB is still making use of cable technology which is a dead business in the US.

Opportunities  in the SWOT analysis of HBO :

This helps in understanding what other things a business can do with the current skills and resources. It helps the business to know the areas where it can expand and take a lead in order to diversify the business and expand the customer base

1. Mobile Applications – Competition is already providing the users with the mobile application and hence they have made the watching device agnostic which further attracts the consumers with a taste of using different devices.
2. Better pricing – HBO should try to modify its pricing strategy as it is costly in comparison to its competitors such as Amazon Prime.
3. Packaging – HBO should market its services by bundling into packages which attract customers and they see a value in the proposition.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of HBO :

This analysis helps in understanding what are the areas which can impact the business in future or right away. So business has to prepare itself to handle the threats in the market landscape. Competition or increasing number of players in the market with same value proposition is a threat to business as it directly lowers the customer base and revenue

1. Changing Customer Preferences – With the rapid changes in technology and people preferences to watch movies online is endangering the business of HBO which is mostly television based broadcasting
2. Availability of pirated movies – There has been increasing incidents of availability of pirated movies which shuts the business completely. The source of pirated movies is uncontrollable and hence it takes away the revenue from the business with no strategy to recover it.
3. Local Cable Channels – There has been an increasing competition from the local cable operators.

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