Online Television Subscription in Tanzania: Examination of the Influence of Information Quality, Video quality and technology ease of use

Abstract

The internet-based broadcasting has led to emergency of a great number ofbroadcasting channels that offer subscribers with more choices ubiquitously.Understanding of the determinants for customers ' subscription to a particularbroadcasting channel becomes important. This study analyzed factorsinfluencing online Television (TV) Subscription in Tanzania. Specifically, thestudy assessed the influence of information quality, video quality and online TVtechnology ease of use on online TV subscription in Tanzania. A questionnairewas used to collect data from 241 online TV subscribers in Dar es Salaam. Amultiple regression analysis of the data collected revealed that, informationquality and online TV technology ease of use influence significantly online TVsubscription in Tanzania. However, the findings of the study established thatvideo quality influence Online TV subscription insignificantly. This impliesthat, the video quality did not matter most for online TV subscription. Thestudy recommends that, Online TV service providers should focus on improvingcontent quality of the information shared. The platforms for accessing OnlineTVs should be ease to use including making it easy to access and use online TVprograms in a more cost effective manner. Besides, subscribers should be easilyenabled to access and view TV programs and/or recorded videos faster than itis with traditional TVs. Doing that would attract more subscribers and hencegenerating more revenue through subscription-based and ad-supported models.Key words: Online TV subscription; Information quality; Video quality; Ease of Use.