Abstract  

This case traces the growth of Amagi and the various challenges faced by it as it has grown to develop its own niche in the TV broadcasting industry in India, and is now slowly growing in markets outside India. Amagi, founded by three entrepreneurs, has come a long way from its initial days of trying to sell its standalone broadcast signal splitting technology to television (TV) broadcasting channels. From what was supposed to be a technology company, it has metamorphosed into a full-fledged media company managing advertising airtime for some of India’s biggest broadcasting channels and advertisers. Outside of India, Amagi has positioned itself as a broadcast playout management company helping channels provide customized content to multiple countries using a single stream. Although, the underlying technology of Amagi has not changed radically over the years, the innovations in Amagi’s offerings to the market have helped it become the success that it is today.

The case outlines all the steps taken by Amagi to address each of the challenges that it has faced in its journey to success, clearly highlighting the various capabilities that it had to develop or acquire over the various time-periods. The case shows how while a firm may believe that it is providing a suitable value proposition, the customers may not see value in this value proposition. The case shows how the firm has to interject at various points of the value chain to establish its presence, and as a consequence of having established its presence and having developed various capabilities, what could be its growth strategy, and how its activities and capabilities will influence the same.

Learning Objective

This is a general management case that can be used in courses on Value Chain Management, Technology Strategy, Entrepreneurship, etc. The case highlights how there could be differences between the value proposition offered by a firm and the value perceived by the customers. It shows the challenges that a firm needs to work on the complete value chain (and not just a single component of the value chain) to establish its presence and start earning revenue. The teaching note also highlights how a firm that thought of flourishing as a technology provider needed to actually transform into a media company to be successful.

The case has been written in a very general manner. So, faculty planning to use it in entrepreneurship courses can present the case using theories and framework from entrepreneurship literature.