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Top1. Introduction1
A 35-years old, Delhi based engineer, much like, a 25-years old freelance musician in Mumbai, ceased to watch television (TV) sometime back. It is because they do not prefer being held up at a specific time to watch a show. Internet has given them the opportunity of watching the content of their choice at their own convenience through Entertainment Streaming Apps (ESAs). They binge watch their favorite shows and movies on different platforms offering access to digital content available globally.
ESAs refer to the delivery of music or video services through internet mediated platforms. These services include video content, movies, serialized TV shows or music. The unique aspect of these platforms is that they enable their users to watch their preferred content at any place or time (Oyedele & Simpson, 2017) which makes these applications a preferred mode of digital media consumption. Various factors, including the increase in smartphone penetration and unlimited data connectivity at affordable prices has fueled the growth of streaming apps. Moreover, changes in lifestyle, and consumers’ need for entertainment, anywhere, any time and any device (AWATAD) have been crucial for the rise of these platforms (Medina, Herrero-Subias, & Guerrero, 2015; Gimpel, 2015).
The emergence of live streaming apps has heralded a new era of entertainment consumption in India, where ESAs operate on two revenue models: advertisement based and subscription based. The affordable subscription rates of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar (the three major ESA service provider in India) has caused traditional television screens to lose their monopoly over digital content. With the growing preference for over-the-top (OTT) viewing and video-on-demand (VOD), ESA users are increasingly ditching television. Evidently, ESA are convenient and economical alternative to other sources of entertainment; while some users may also be driven purely by its entertainment value offered by the digital content available on these apps.
According to the recent 2019 Internet Trends Report, India has the second largest internet user base in the world, consisting of 12% of the global internet users (The Quint, 2019). This has been facilitated by the launch of Reliance Jio in India in 2016 that offered unlimited access to fourth-generation (4G) data and voice services to its subscribes at affordable rates. There has been a steep rise in the digital media consumption in India since the launch of Reliance Jio. As per Indian OTT Platforms Report, (2019), there has been an increase of 140% in the time spent on streaming apps across India, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. This indicates the changing consumer behavior regarding digital entertainment consumption. The online video market in India is estimated to be worth USD 4 billion by 2025, with 1/3rd of the revenue to be contributed by subscription based apps and the remaining to be accounted by advertising (Jha, 2020). The phenomenal success of ESAs has attracted other broadcast channels including Disney and HBO to adapt their business models and join the row of existing streaming giants.
Despite the enthusiasm surrounding this sector, scholarly research in this domain remains limited. Majority of the existing studies have used the context of live streaming usage intentions rather than ESAs in particular. The focus of these studies is divided across social live streaming services (Chen & Lin, 2018, Hilvert-Bruce, Neill, SjÖblom & Hamari, 2018), online videos game streaming (SjÖblom & Hamari, 2017), video or music entertainment streaming apps (Oyedele & Simpson’ 2017; Hu, Zhang, & Wang, 2017; Kinnally & Bolduc, 2020); and more recently live streaming of sports (Kim & Kim 2020). While these studies significantly contribute to the growing body of literature on live streaming usage behavior, it is essential to examine whether the findings of these studies can be extended and validated, specifically in the context of subscription based video streaming apps. The widespread popularity of ESAs and the paucity of research in the area presses the need for further investigation that explores the determinants of ESA usage.