The purpose of my master thesis is to investigate and analyse the importance of motivational factors in the use of streaming SVOD services online among its users, and their impact and gratifications obtained while watching streaming video-on-demand contents online. The main framework for studying motivations will be the Theory of Uses and Gratifications (U&G) on various media from previous studies. Motivations will be researched empirically by collecting data with a survey questionnaire among users. Changing leisure practices and the growing number of streaming platforms are influencing the popularization and drastic increase in usage of SVOD services among users in recent years. With the increase in the use of SVOD services among users, the consumption and role of traditional media, such as traditional television, are changing. Due to the current COVID-19 situation and its restrictions of public life and movement of the population, the consumption of SVOD services during the pandemic has increased significantly, therefore research of its uses is even more relevant. Frequent use and viewing of constantly available video contents leads to a new practice called binge-watching where multiple episodes are watched consecutively in one sitting. The results of empirical research show that the primary motive for using SVOD services among users is entertainment, the following motives also predominate: convenience, boredom and relaxation, which at the same time represent emotional gratifications for users. The most popular and most frequently used SVOD services are Netflix and Amazon Prime which are strong competitors in terms of distribution, performance, availability of video content and own-branded production video content of Netflix Originals and Amazon Originals.
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