Dear Charbel, Class,

Thyrlby (1998) discusses how Porter’s model (2008/1979) ignores time and is a bit static, also Slater and Olson (2002) discuss that porter’s model does not represent the market forces and their influence over the business performance quite well.
Assuming we wanted to apply porter’s model on the Media industry, which I work in, where companies produce programs or movies, and sell to networks, I believe that Porter’s model needs to be developed more, to cover some other sectors that would help such industries to analyze the environment around them.

Nowadays the great gap that appears between content producers and viewership needs or networks, (because of direct access of networks to the TV market exhibitions) have caused “intermediaries” to enter in the setup between networks (buyers) and Production companies (sellers) (Wynne & Berthon 2001, p. 18).

Although, we can always consider that the intermediaries are part of the “bargaining power” force of Porter, based on the crucial role they have in the media value chain, I believe they are a very specific and distinctive element of porter’s power of buyer force. Next to that, there should be a place for the IT and the impact of government. Which leads me to believe that, in order for the model to fit my needs in my industry, it needs to have at least 2 extra more forces to be considered.

A quick preliminary application to Porter’s model in the Media industry will show the following;

1. Bargaining power of suppliers; There are no big international formats in the media created in the middle east (examples like: The Voice, Got Talent, The winner is, Star academy etc..) as a result, international format creation companies ( such as Endemol, Talpa, Sony) can affect the Middle East Format creation companies by adding more competition and raising their prices. 2. Threat of