The show must go on(line): the impact of content and system quality on the usage of television streaming content libraries

ABSTRACT

This study explores the impact of strategic product characteristics (content and system quality), price value, and habit on attitudinal (word of mouth and brand perception) and behavioral (actual usage) outcomes in the context of television companies’ online streaming services (content libraries). The study utilizes structural equation modeling to analyze data from a survey of 1,038 content library users in Germany. The research conceptualizes and validates content quality as a second-order construct comprising four dimensions (actuality, range, relevance, and originality). The study validates system quality as a second-order construct encompassing usability, reliability, and effort expectancy. The results highlight the importance of habit formation in driving actual usage, emphasizing the need for consistent content delivery and personalized content offerings. The results also underscore not only the importance of content quality (particularly actuality, range, and relevance) as a driving factor for usage, brand perception, and word of mouth recommendation, but also that streaming service providers should pay attention to system quality. Overall, the study enriches our understanding of strategies for content libraries, contributing to both theory and practice in the streaming industry.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the co-editors and the anonymous reviewer. Their support during the review process and constructive suggestions contributed significantly to improving the quality of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christian Zabel

Christian Zabel is Full Professor for Innovation and Corporate Management at TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences. His research focuses on production and distribution in digital media, digital ecosystems, emergent media technologies and the digital transformation of (media) companies. Before, he headed the product management of t-online.de, Germany’s largest online publisher and was executive assistant to Deutsche Telekom’s CEO René Obermann, overseeing strategic cooperations with the media industry. Christian Zabel studied journalism in Dortmund and Brussels and political science at Sciences-Po Paris (IEP).

Reinhard E. Kunz

Reinhard Kunz is a full professor in the department of media management at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in Germany and holds the chair of „Innovation Management and Media. Before, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Cologne, a Professor for Marketing and Sales at the Management Center Innsbruck in Austria and a Junior Professor for Media Management, Sport Media at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. He focuses on various aspects of media research and innovation management. Primarily, he conducts research on the media and tech industries, organizational and individual behavior, as well as the management of digital innovations and transformations and their impact on customers, enterprises, and the society. His research emphases are in business model dynamics, proactive decision making, entertainment science, and media and technology user behavior and engagement. At the intersection of entertainment science and user behavior, he studies, for instance, the sports, esports, gaming, and motion picture industries in terms of media technology acceptance, streaming media usage, service ecosystems, or success factors.

Verena Telkmann

Verena Telkmann is a research assistant in the field of production structures for digital media and a Ph.D. candidate at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz and TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences. In her research, she focuses on digital media production and media economics. She completed her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on marketing in 2014 at the institute for dual study programs at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and her master’s degree in communication, multimedia and market management in 2017 at Dusseldorf University of Applied Sciences. She gained practical experience in online marketing of CHECK24 Mobilfunk GmbH.

Daniel O’Brien

Daniel O’Brien is a research assistant at the Technische Hochschule Köln. He has been supporting Professor Zabel in his research there since 2022. Previously, he was a research assistant at the University of Cologne at the Chair of Media and Technology Management. His Ph.D focussed on the digital transformation of entrepreneurial journalism. In addition, he works as a freelancer in research and teaching.