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Top1. Introduction
How long has it been since you watched TV in your living room? According to Deloitte (2017), the population of cord cutters is increasing worldwide. Audiences are shifting their viewing patterns from TV stations to web-based video platforms or over-the-top (OTT) services. OTT operators utilize Internet capacity to deliver diverse media-rich content. Wolk (2015) described three primary effects of OTT services on the TV industry: user accessibility, flexibility of time and space, and broadband services. Multiservice operators (MSO) provide broadband users with various content selections and on-demand services across multiple devices. The viewing experience is also changing from one-way transmission to two-way interaction. Watching TV is no longer a family-centric activity, and consumption can be personalized through OTT platforms. This changes aspects, such as planning, commercial display, and program information, of the traditional media business model (Evans et al., 2016). The complexity of cross-device media consumption and content delivery provide challenges for advertisers and system operators to comprehend OTT technology diffusion and market competition (Proulx & Shepatin, 2012; Yeh, 2015). In response to competition from OTT operators, TV operators are developing multiplatform strategies to broadcast their content through existing channels and simultaneously provide the same content on-demand through websites. Therefore, the operators can grab and retain audience attention while attracting advertising revenue from multiple outlets (Bnnett et al., 2012). For instance, HBO owns TV stations—HBO Go and HBO Now (Granados, 2015)—in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the BBC and Channel 4 also operate BBC iPlayer 40D (Sørensen, 2015). Taiwan TV operators have also considered implementing such a multiplatform strategy and including OTT services for existing subscribers. However, the mechanics of subscription and a net rating system remain underdeveloped. Moreover, privacy problems and content repackaging discourage capital investment.
A 2013 Nielsen survey showed 35.9% of audiences receive content not only from TV but also from social community sharing, entertainment interaction, and access to personal content. Most studies of OTT services are limited to policy regulation (Krämer & Wohlfarth, 2015; Lin, 2013; Liu, 2017; Yeh, 2015), and little research has evaluated the process and effects of OTT use from the user perspective, which is pivotal to OTT marketing and content production.
The OTT platform has evolved to integrate digital technology and social community from a technological standpoint. Businesses on the platform strive to provide more opportunities for media consumption, conversation, and content interaction. However, the existing theoretical and business frameworks cannot keep pace and explain the changes of emerging technologies. New media researchers are needed to reexamine the social interactions and user responses under the dynamics of the technology landscape (Li, 2016; Sørensen, 2015). This has inspired our study.
This study developed an empirical model to answer the following questions:
- 1.
How should user activities of OTT services in Taiwan be defined and classified?
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How can the influential factors and outcomes of OTT services be identified from reviews of the literature?
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Can the interactions among individuals, the online community, and content be clarified in the context of OTT use?