Survey on Expansion of OTT Platforms Among University Students

This assignment involves a questionnaire to gather information about the usage of OTT platforms among university students in Bangladesh. The survey aims to understand how much time they spend watching video content on TV channels and OTT platforms, whether they have experience with OTT platforms, and how many sites they have subscriptions to. It also asks about their spending habits for OTT services and cable TV, as well as their preferences for foreign versus local streaming sites.

Department of Management Information Systems
Faculty of Business Studies
University of Dhaka
Course Name: Business Research
Course Code: 405
Title of Assignment: Developing Literature Review,
Questionnaire Design and Theoretical Framework on
“Expansion of OTT platform among the university students
of Bangladesh: Is OTT platform really replacing Cable TV
network?”
Submitted to:
Md. Rakibul Hasan
Assistant Professor
Department of Management Information Systems
Faculty of Business Studies
University of Dhaka
Submitted by:
Team Inferior Desk
1) Asmaul Husna Tamanna -117
2) Mushfiq Rahman – 057
3) Ariful Hasan – 039
4) Md. Redown Mahmud – 017
5) Ariful Hasan – 039
6) Labib Al Mahadi – 003
Section - A
Faculty of Business Studies
University of Dhaka
Contents
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
1 | P a g e

Theoretical Framework................................................................................................................4
Questionnaire.........................................................................................................................7

“Expansion of OTT platform among the university students
of Bangladesh: Is OTT platform really replacing Cable TV
network?”
Literature Review
The move from digital television to web viewing had everything to do with information
technology breakthroughs. Computers in Europe and North America became highly accessible in
the 1990s and continued with the arrival of the World Wide Web (Bury, 2005). Any of the most
popular video uploading and sharing sites mushroomed later in the 2000s, including Fast Time,
RealPlayer, Apple's iTunes, etc. Approximately three fast-expanding OTT channels such as
YouTube have traversed stages since the year 2000 (Steinkamp, 2010). Second, the Internet was
used in advertisements for TV shows; that is, promotions were shared digitally to scan and
encourage Internet users to watch TV programs. The Internet was primarily used at this point to
push people to watch TV shows conventionally. A new entertainment model for the citizens of
Bangladesh is the OTT Network. In recent days, OTT has arisen as a new way of viewing live
TV channels, originals, movies, dramas, etc. in Bangladesh due to the success and connectivity
of smart TV and broadband internet. The OTT Platform is Bangladesh's brand-new style of
entertainment. The growth of OTT Channels has accelerated due to internet access and shifts in
the tastes of people. At present, the upper and middle class have become very famous with 4k
TVs, HD smart TVs. Due to the extra commercial breaks of Bangladeshi satellite television
channels and the broadcasting of valueless, dishonourable dramas and movies, people are very
frustrated. Although entertainment-loving individuals were waiting for an alternative medium,
the OTT platforms' ad-free HD video streaming content has been a great source of entertainment
for people. Originals, movies, web shows, because of less censored content, have become very
common among people. In addition to Bengali movies and dramas, people now have the ability
to watch the new films on websites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar, etc., which
cannot be viewed on ordinary satellite channels. Netflix and other foreign OTT platforms are
very popular for English films and content in Bangladesh but because of the lack of Bengali
language originals, movies or dramas, we did not include such OTT platforms in our list.

Mobile watching is the most recent breakthrough that has greatly influenced the growth of OTT.
The advent of electronic technologies such as smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks has inexorably
challenged the distinction between digital technology and traditional tv, changing the way shows
are being created and viewed by audiences (Ghadialy, 2011). Scholars were also concerned
about the scene of the smartphone in the video viewing and mobile computer markets. According
to Tang, Venolia, and Inkpen (2016) and Banerjee et al. (2013), the most striking aspects are
networking and high portability, where smartphones stand out. Although PCs and tablets also
need outside assistance to connect to the Internet, smartphones can conveniently connect to it via
any reasonably open 3G or 4G network, such as Ethernet or wifi. In comparison, this research
has found that viewers who accessed online streaming sites care more than the video material
itself regarding relevant information (e.g. Facebook's most-watched or YouTube's most rated,
feedback, critics, etc.); thus, the position of OTT among mobile users is actually more for
collecting information than for long-hour video watching (Tang et al., 2016).

Theoretical Framework
The form of entertainment has gone through a lot of changes over the decades. From cinema
halls to televisions and cable TV channels, now viewers have got one more option to try, which
is ‘Over-The-Top’ or OTT platforms. OTT platforms have been in the market for quite some
time now. OTT platforms are those streaming media which bypasses satellite and broadcasting
networks and provide services to customers via public internet. One of the pioneer OTT
platforms is Netflix which was earlier a DVD-rental service, made the concept of video-
streaming service well known among the customers. Besides Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu,
HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV etc. are also the participants in the global market of OTT media.
In addition to these, there are domestic OTT platforms in many countries now. It is to be noted
that, at present OTT market is worth $155.6 billion which increased by almost $4 billion during
the Covid-19 lockdown. Not only that, it is increasing by 30% annually and predicted to reach
$1,039 billion by 2027. OTT platform is continuously expanding and taking the place of
traditional cable TV channels.
OTT platforms came late in Bangladesh as the internet connectivity was not up to the mark even
a few years before. Since 3G,4G and WIFI services have made the internet connection faster and
cheaper, Bangladeshi people changed their tastes. OTT platform is a new addition to that change
of taste. While Netflix has been in the USA since 2007, it officially came to Bangladesh during
2016. Right now, there are 200,000 subscribers of Netflix in Bangladesh. Apart from Netflix,
other international OTT platforms like Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ etc. are not
officially available in our country. Although, we have a number of Bangladeshi OTT platforms
like Bongo, Bioscope Live, Banglaflix, Cinematic, Cinespot, Robi TV, Chorki, Toffee etc. In
addition to these, Hoichoi, Zee5 and Addatimes are india-based platforms which are available in
the OTT market of Bangladesh.
According to BTRC, there are 103 million internet users in Bangladesh, until March 2020, and
95% of them are mobile internet users. Among them, 80 lakhs use ISP for their internet. If we
consider that the mobile internet users do not watch OTT contents, still there is a large customer
base of 80 lakhs for OTT platforms. If we separate the 200,000 subscribers of Netflix, we have a
potential subscriber base around to 75 lakhs.
On the other hand, according to BTRC, there are 28 satellite TV channels and including BTV,
BTV World and Sangsad TV channel, we can say there are about 31 TV channels in Bangladesh.
They broadcast a lot of programs including dramas, reality shows, movies, news, talk shows and
many more. They also air special programs during different festivals like Eid, national days,
holidays etc. Once there was only BTV, now we have a lot of channels to watch. People have
also moved on from analog TV to Smart TVs and 4K TVs. They also are adopting digital ways
to conduct their programs now. Most of them have social media pages and YouTube channels to
broadcast their programs. Not only that, many of those channels are opting to use Bangladeshi
OTT platforms to reach their viewers even using the internet.

The reason for which we have chosen to analyze the market of OTT platforms and cable TV
networks among university students is because most of the university students live outside their
homes and they necessarily don’t have TVs available. So, they are one of the most potential
customer bases for OTT platforms. Also, they are the most potential viewers who may not watch
cable TV networks. Therefore, we have tried to find the common ground among rising OTT
platforms and traditional TV channels through this flexible customer base.
Since there is no available data regarding OTT platforms users except Netflix and cable TV
viewers, we intend to do the research based on primary data sources- survey questionnaire
among different university students. Also, there is very little to none research made on this topic
or related to this topic, focusing Bangladesh, we will use different news articles and op-ed
articles and research based on global OTT media markets as our secondary sources.
In this concept, the independent variable is the viewers of cable TV networks. And the dependent
variable is the users of OTT platforms. Because, our research is focusing on the expansion of
OTT platforms among university students. At the same time, we are working to find out how it is
affecting the cable TV viewer base. As the global behavior among the OTT media users is that
they are shifting from cable and DTH services to OTT platforms. Considering that, we can also
expect that the university students are shifting from watching television channels to OTT
platforms. Also, as most of the university students live outside their family homes during the
university days. Naturally, they don’t get the chance to watch televisions that much, which is an
important factor to consider. Therefore, we can make an assumption that if the number of
viewers falls for cable TV channels, it may result in a rise to the number of OTT media users.

Questionnaire
Questionnaire
Date: ___ / ___ / ______ Serial Number
Dear respondent,
This questionnaire is for a survey on expansion of OTT (over-the-top) platform among the
university students of Bangladesh. We will use your information for the mentioned purpose
and will keep your information private. Your participation in this survey will be
appreciated.

Thank you in advance.
Socio-demographic profile
1. What is your gender?
 Male
 Female
 Others
2. Which Age group do you belong?
 15-25
 25-35
 35-45
 Above 50
3. Which University or College do you study at?
: _____________________________________________________________________
4. What area do you live in?
 Urban
 Sub-urban area
 Rural area
Close-ended Questions

1. How much do you like to watch video contents like movies, series, documentaries etc.?
 Much
 average
 low
 very low
2. How much time you spent by watching video content on TV channel on last week?
 More than 3 hours
 4-6 hours
 6-10 hours
 10-15 hours
 Less than 20 hours
3. How much time you spent by watching video content on OTT platform on last month?
 More than 3 hours
 4-6 hours
 6-10 hours
 10-15 hours
 Less than 20 hours
4. Do you have experience of using OTT platform?
 Yes
 No
5. For how many years, you are using OTT platform?
 More than 5years
 4-5 years

 3-4 years
 2-3 years
 Less than 2 years
6. In how many OTT site you have subscriptions?
 More than 3
 3
 2
 1
 None
7. How much money you spent for OTT service on last month?
 More than 2000BDT
 2000-1000 BDT
 1000-500 BDT
 500-100 BDT
 Less than 100 BDT
8. How much money you spent for Cable TV service on last month?
 More than 2000BDT
 2000-1000 BDT
 1000-500 BDT
 500-100 BDT
 Less than 100 BDT
9. Do you prefer OTT platform over traditional cable TV services?
 Yes
 No
10. Do you think OTT platform is getting popular day by day among young people?

 Yes
 No
 Not sure
11. Do you visit Bangladeshi streaming sites?
 Yes
 No
12. Which Bangaldeshi streaming site you visit the most?
 Bioscope
 Robi TV+
 Banglaflix
 Bongo BD
 Others :__________________________________________________________
13. Which foreign streaming site you visit the most?
 Netflix
 Amazon Prime
 Disney Hotstar
 Others :__________________________________________________________
14. Which one would you prefer most?
 Foreign streaming site
 Local streaming site
 Both
15. Will you switch to local streaming sites if these are for free?
 Yes
 No