STRENGTH
Brand equity MTV was rapidly expanding through broadcasting to Western Europe, Japan, Australia, large portions of Latin America, and eventually to countries in Asia. Boundi, CEO of Viacom, promoted the MTV networks as global brands. By negotiate exclusive contracts that gave mTV the first crack at playing most major record companies’ music videos. Besides MTV has went from being a purely music video channel to channel which interspersed with innovative programming such as Beavis and Butterhead, and Road Stories. These innovative programming have increased the loyalty of its teenagers viewer.

Lower Cost Viacom run in a cost-conscious manner. Redstone requires its own programming should be made in low cost by using home-grown talent instead of using Hollywood studios and other branded television networks because of cost soared in demanded for their services. Hence, it saves Viacom a millions of dollar per year.
Acquisition of Blockbuster, which is the biggest customer of Hollywood movies, give Viacom greater bargaining of purchasing power with programming suppliers to reduce programming cost.

Strong portfolio of cable networks
Viacom operates its business under prominent brands including MTV Networks, BET Networks, Paramount Pictures. MTV Networks includes MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central and Country Music Television (CMT). In addition, the network also own digital assets like Neopets, Xfire, Atom, Harmonix and Quizilla to offer interactive entertainment content. BET Networks feature traditional and digital platforms including BET, BET Jazz, BET Hip Hop, and BET International. Paramount Pictures have access to a huge library of top films through brands like Paramount Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. All of the Viacom’s networks follow MTV to develop global strategy to locally produce content in each country in which they were broadcasting in order to increase the company’s global viewing audience. This strong portfolio of cable networks not only enhances the company’s brand image but also its revenue generating capacity. The differentiation of the networks have attracted advertisers who wish to focus on a specific market segment or reach different demographic groups

WEAKNESSES
Increasing debt
In 1986, because of intense competition from HBO, Viacom’s cash flow plunged and weakened by the $2billion debt incurred upon the acquisition of Summer M. Redstone. It had brought problems to Redstone to boost Viacom’s performance due to its lack of financing resources. Hence it had limited the growth of Viacom since it had rapidly incurred a lot of expenses to develop its own TV programming. One of the examples was during the acquisition of Paramount, Viacom could not counter QVC’s bid because Viacom still had a substantial debt due to the acquisition of Viacom and the expenses incurred to develop its own TV program. Besides that, Viacom’s situation was made worse when both Paramount and Blockbuster’s performance were not performing well which hurts Viacom’s cash flow and ability to pay its huge debts.
Reaction towards growth in digital technology and occurrence of Internet
Viacom does not take proper reaction when the industry was experiencing rapid growth in advances in digital technology such as streaming audio and video over Internet. The dramatically increase of Internet user indicates that customer’s preference had changed from using traditional cable system to internet. Due to the changes, competitors of Viacom such as News Corp had came out with new websites that offered specialist services. This had affects Viacom because of it slow respond to the changes from cable to internet. Thus, Viacom loss their competitive advantages over its rivals as lagged behind the online growing environment.

Human resource management
The majority shareholder, Sumner Redstone, behaves unpredictably. He used to blame the CEOs of Viacom for the poor performance follow by appointing new capable CEO to replace the previous one. Redstone fired top managers and hired Frank Biondi as CEO of Viacom. Redstone then fired Biondi and hired Viacom’s new CEO, Mel Karmazin after merger with CBS in 2000. After splitting Viacom and CBS into two public companies at the end of 2005, Redstone fired Tom Freston as Viacom CEO in 2006 then hired Philippe Dauman as new CEO. Viacom has gone through a long process in getting a capable CEO and only with the hiring of Dauman leading to its success.

OPPORTUNITIES expand into emerging markets Industry was experiencing rapid globalization as US movies, news, and TV shows were now being shown around the world. Ability to access to global marketplace will definitely increase revenue and profits. Viacom has already won a cable television license to launch its Nickelodeon and VH-1 channels in Germany, Europe’s biggest and potentially most lucrative media market. India and China are potential market which consist of over a billion viewers.
THREATS
Competitor from online sector
The growing usage of Internet causes Viacom to dangers because it increases the market players in the media entertainment industry. Once Internet had become the major alternative entertainment channel to customers, fewer and fewer people were watching and listening to local channels. This is because internet has provides a better platform for companies to operate their business in terms of lower cost and increase the efficiency of the organization’s operation. Video Website such as YouTube provides streaming of video on the web. This will affect Viacom’s performance in terms of profitability in future years because Viacom still lagged behind and in the near future. Hence if Viacom still unable to make the content available to viewers, then Viacom might not be able to sustain long in the industry because consumers will switch to other options.

Digital Piracy
Apart from online competitors, digital piracy is also one of the major threats for all the entertainment companies including Viacom. As we can see from the case there are many illegal websites offering free download video program. For an example, new movie releases were often available to download online illegally just days after being introduced in movie theaters. As a results, entertainment companies were losing billions potential revenues significantly. Illegal download and streaming websites offer consumers on-demand television and movie programming at zero cost, effectively forcing Viacom to compete with its own lower-cost programs and films.

Failure to integrate into popular online sites
Based on the case, Viacom seems focused on maintaining the status quo despite the market forces at work against them. This is a major problem for Viacom because consumers now are provided with several entertainment options presented to them. Hence if Viacom still unable to make the content available to viewers in a way they find acceptable, then Viacom might not be able to sustain long in the industry and may bear with the risk to losing consumers because consumers will eventually switch to other options.

Government regulation
Environment is not predictable for every industry including media industry. Government regulation can be a threat for the media industry; somehow the rules and regulation may levy any restrictions on its operations. For instance, during 1990s, number of entertainment distribution channels was exploding as government regulations prevented broadcast networks from owning TV programming companies like Viacom were phased out. It affected Viacom as it strategy to develop a full line of movie and TV entertainment programming had spurred changes in that competitive dynamic of the environment.