Applying niche and gratification theory approach to examine the users' indulgence towards over-the-top platforms and conventional TV

Abstract

Recently, the advent of over-the-top (OTT) platforms had disrupted users’ viewing behaviour through technological advancement and personal adaptations impacting conventional TV viewing. Therefore, this study investigates the users’ indulgence level towards the OTT platforms and Conventional TV. It will also discuss how the socio-demographics of the users correlate with the seven components of the niche and gratification approach. 329 valid responses were administered utilising an online survey instrument using convenience and snowball sampling methods. Results of Multiple Hierarchical Regression reveal that all the Components of conventional TV have no significant correlation with the users’ socio-demographics. For OTT platforms, users’ family income shows a substantial correlation with the relaxation and convenience component. Except for the convenience component, the scores of niche breadth for all components of Conventional TV were found to be higher than those of OTT platforms. The competitive superiority of Conventional TV was found to be higher than OTT platforms in all the gratification components except the convenience component. Results show that the financial benefit and relaxation are the strongest niches for Conventional TV, while the convenience component exposed the strongest niche for OTT platforms. Though previous studies have focused on studying the user’s perceptions of the OTT platform’s picture quality and content specifications, this will be the first attempt to measure the indulgence of users towards OTT platforms and Conventional TV.