The effects of media characteristics on IPTV adoption

This paper examines the factors that influence user adoption of IPTV. Early studies lacked comprehensive approaches to both technological and broadcasting aspects of IPTV adoption. This study therefore incorporates additional theoretical construct, user gratifications, to reflect media characteristics using the Technology Adoption Model (TAM). Although originally the TAM is believed to be more parsimonious, predictive, and robust, looking at the two key components (perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU)) of the TAM is not enough to explain user adoption of IPTV. This is because this model did not reflect the psychological perspective of media on IPTV. Therefore, to examine the effect of media characteristics on IPTV adoption, this study incorporates additional theoretical variables spanning ‘the uses and gratifications theory’ rather than focusing only on the TAM. This research also examines the effect of habitual TV and Internet media use on IPTV adoption. Overall, the results revealed that the effect of perceived affective gratification was very important and Internet use habits can be key determinants of IPTV adoption.