Who uses paid over-the-top services and why? Cross-national comparisons of consumer demographics and values

This study empirically investigates characteristics that influence the use of paid content streaming, or over-the-top (OTT) media services. We surveyed paid OTT service users from seven countries—Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United States— to examine the effects of user demographics and values on paid OTT usage as well as the different user characteristics that affect paid OTT usage by country. Our results show that age, monthly income, education, occupation, and tendencies toward warm relationships with others, fun and enjoyment in life, self-fulfillment, and a sense of accomplishment are the main variables that directly influence the use of paid OTT services. Furthermore, the influence of demographic attributes and consumption values that affect transactional video-on-demand and subscription video-on-demand use vary across countries.