1. Terms of reference
This report describes the marketing plan for Virgin Media a major player in the Digital television market in UK. Virgin Media (formerly NTL Incorporated) is an UK-based entertainment and communications company. In February 2007, the company’s name was changed from NTL Incorporated to Virgin Media. It provides television, broadband, fixed line telephone and mobile telephone services in the UK. VirginMedia uses cable technology for their network and a set top box (STB) is used by the customer. Their new product called Video On Demand (VOD) is the only platform that can access BBC iPlayer. The digital recorders that they supply is called Digital Video Recorders (DVR) with which the customer can record programmes in 2 channels, while viewing the third.
2. Executive Summary
The marketing plan of Virgin Media is designed to examine the position of the company in the digital television market. According to latest reports from Ofcom the digital television industry is expanding and the number of customers are expected to rise every year. Virgin Media offers the customer with a wide array of choice like interactive TV, Video On Demand and superior technology. The objective of this plan is to describe the major findings and provide recommendations.
In order to analyze the current position of the company an external and internal audit was conducted. The internal audit exposes the strengths and weaknesses of the company and the external audit depicts the opportunities and threats that the organization face. Some of the key findings of the external audit and internal audit are mentioned below
1. Through the PEST analysis, it was found that Virgin Media has a major market share in the Digital TV industry and is also growing. The company faces stiff competition from the market leaders BSKYB
2. Virgin Media is financially under loss owing to high debt
References: Jobber, D. (2007), ‘ Principles of Marketing’, Fifth Edition, McGraw Hill. Kotler, P., Roberto, N., Lee , N. (2002), ‘ Social Marketing Resources’, Sage, pp 99. Virgin Media (2009), www.virginmedia.com [Accessed on 07.12.2009] Marketing Magazine (2009), http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/wide/893106/ (Accessed 08.12.2009) BBC (2008), http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8103351.stssssssssm (Accessed 28.11.2009) Ofcom (2009), http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2009_02/ (Accessed 07.12.2009) Sky Digital (2009), www.sky.com (Accessed 07.12.2009) VirginorSky (2009), www.virginorsky (Accessed 06.12.2009) Athens (2009), http://www.bi-interactive.com/index.aspx?Lang=en&MainPage=render Content&StoryID=660478&ReportID=917&Highlight=virgin%20media#a660478 (Accessed 08.12.2009) Athens (2009), http://www.marketlineinfo.com/library/DisplayContent.aspx?R=D1FE4737-F9DF-49A6-8D02-1C94685F6F92&N=4294835188 (Accessed 08.12.2009)