Content Consumption in Streaming Frenzy Milieu: An Analysis Among College Students in Mysuru

Abstract

Until 2010 when Netflix became a reality no one imagined that a DVD rental company would change the entire consumption pattern upside down (Shantharaju S & Vagdevi H S, 2021).  The culture it created prompted many to follow the suit including  Disney Plus (Disney +), e-commerce tycoon Amazon (Prime), homegrown Alt Balaji, and others. Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms offer everything from the Latin American Narco-history with an addictive dramatic plot, series of belongingness with subjects dealing with nationalism & patriotism, content on sex & lust, to the nauseating portrayal of chauvinism weave an everlasting TV series. Probably, without the infrastructure and user interface, OTT platforms wouldn't have been so popular (Michael Samuel, 2017). With the diverse content and available and affordable technology, thanks to the pandemic there have been a skyrocketing growth of OTT subscribers from 32 million in 2019 to 62 million in 2020 (exchange4media,2020), and still growing strong. The lockdown saw a clear shift from traditional media to OTT platforms (Gupta & Singharia, 2021). Today, India has 40 OTT platforms, and it is one of the fastest-growing OTT markets (PwC Report,2020). With government push to digitization coupled with cheap mobile data, increasing mobile population and most importantly rural penetration of the internet (business insider report, 2021) has all influenced the growth of OTT platforms as well. With two OTT providers in 2012 to 40 plus as of today, the OTT revolution has come a long way in India (NASSCOM, 2020). The induced growth of OTT due to the pandemic has also led to questions on the content that is been viewed on these platforms. A conflict that questions, the content vis-à-vis the crass outright representation of the subjects and their influence. According to industry reports in 2021, students have made the biggest contributions to OTT consumption. It is necessary to understand how these content influences aspects of the individual. Many recent studies (Gupta & Singharia, 2021; Nijahwan & Dahiya, 2021) concentrate the research on emerging consumer consumption patterns and changing behavior and habits. The current research is an empirical study on the growing influence of content among college students in the Mysuru region. The study analyses the psychographic influence of content consumption using a structured questionnaire.