Internet Penetration And The Adoption Of Television Streaming Among Stakeholders In South-west Nigeria

Internet Penetration And The Adoption Of Television Streaming Among Stakeholders In South-west Nigeria

Chapiter 1

Introduction

Background of the Study, paragraph 1.1

Numerous breakthroughs have resulted from advances in computer technology, particularly with the introduction of the Internet. The growth of the Internet is transforming a variety of global industries, including the media sector. Television streaming, the process by which television stations make media content available online, is one of the cutting-edge ways the Internet is being used in the media sector. In accordance with Okoro’s (2006) definition of technological convergence, it is “the continuous development in media technology aimed at bringing about a blend in technologies in the process of message delivery” (p. This implies that computer and television technology will eventually converge, giving rise to television streaming. According to Gerbarg and Noam (2003), television streaming is the “quintessential digital convergence medium putting together television, telecommunications, the Internet, and computer applications” (p. xxi).

Before the Internet, television stations were constrained by geographic restrictions and the strength of the airwaves. Because not all audiences were able to express their ideas or opinions about what was happening in the world around them, the feedback mechanism for television viewers was also either constrained or delayed. Additionally, viewers of television had access to a limited number of programs at a specific time. As a result, television viewers frequently have a small selection of available shows to choose from, and there was no other way to catch up on a show they had missed. However, because they are not constrained by on-air signal or coverage, television streaming offers media companies a venue to reach a bigger audience. As a result, viewers from different locations can access the internet material of television stations. The audience has something to gain by watching television shows online as well. With the invention of television streaming, viewers may watch their preferred television shows from anywhere in the world as long as they have an Internet connection. Video on Demand (VoD) television viewing on the Internet allows viewers to catch up on missed favorite shows, which lowers the frequency with which viewers miss television programs. The ability to watch television programs while on the go raises television to the level of a mobile media. Viewers can access a television station’s website using a laptop or a mobile device.

According to Ikpe and Olise (2010) and Livingstone (2003), television streaming expands the reach of television coverage and removes a television station’s territorial signal restriction by making way for an increasingly global audience. Because its feedback mechanism fosters greater interaction between media professionals and media audiences, television streaming must be adopted immediately when the media audience migrates from conventional media to the new one. However, Mirza and Beltrán (2014) claimed that high-speed broadband technologies should be in place to improve individual consumption for a seamless streaming experience. This is accomplished by compressing streaming media apps to work with the end users’ Internet connectivity. This suggests that streaming services take the end customers’ access to and quality of their Internet connectivity into account.

According to Vliet (2002), the Internet is a worldwide network that allows millions of users to exchange data with a number of networks connected to a single organization. According to Pratama and Al-Shaikh (2012), the Internet is also the “symbol of technological era” (p. The widespread use of the Internet in the twenty-first century has not only led to changes in the media sector but also in every other area of the business. With the invention of radio and television streaming, it may be claimed that Internet technology has altered the face of broadcasting. Broadcasters started streaming their programs online in an effort to take advantage of the Internet’s technological advancements and to keep up with the audience’s transition to new media. Broadband Internet access must be widely available and reasonably priced for audiences to watch television programs online in sync (Gerbarg & Noam, 2003). Although this might be taken for granted in the wealthy nations of the West, for instance, it raises concerns about the infrastructures set up to improve Internet access and connectivity in a nation like Nigeria.

Internet penetration is the ratio of persons who have access to the Internet to those who do not, which is a key factor in determining how extensively the entire amount of broadband bandwidth is used. Additionally, it gauges the expansion of Internet access in a certain geographic area. According to statistics, more people in Nigeria have access to the Internet than there were 15 years ago. For instance, according to reports from Internet World Stats (2016), Internet Society (2016), and Premium Times (2016), the number of Internet users climbed to 93,524,398 as of August 2016 across both GSM and CDMA networks. Internet users can thus access the Internet via either the fixed Internet known as the CDMA supplied by telecommunication providers or the mobile Internet platform. Internet users with established Internet infrastructures can now utilize tablets, laptops, smart phones, and other mobile devices with Internet capabilities to access the Internet.

However, research has revealed that respondents’ age, education, income, work position, gender, and marital status are among the demographic factors that influence their usage of the Internet and acceptance of television streaming. As a result, Penard, Poussing, Mukoko, Tamokwe (2013), Rhee and Kim (2004), and Yang and Kang (2006) concluded that young adults with college degrees and steady employment make up the majority of Internet users because they are assumed to possess the computer skills required for Internet use and the adoption of television streaming. Adopters of television streaming, to some extent, must also have the technical know-how required to operate computer equipment before choosing to watch television programs online. The majority of Internet information is in the English language, according to Viard and Economides (2011), thus it will be more appealing to those who are educated and can understand the language. The “digital divide” is defined as “the gap between those who have effective access to and exploit the potential of IT and those who do not” (Niehaves & Plattfaut, 2014, p. 2). This phenomenon is a result of demographic factors.

Some of the factors affecting Internet use in Nigeria, according to the Internet Society, Nigeria Chapter (2016) and West (2015), include a lack of technical know-how, the high cost of purchasing computer equipment, the high cost of Internet subscriptions, and a negative attitude brought on by security-related problems like cybercrimes when using the Internet. According to West (2015), economic levels are obstacles to using the Internet, and unless low-income earners have access to free goods and affordable gadgets, they might not be able to do so. While data subscriptions may be available, they might not be used for television streaming due to the high quantity of data required to watch live programs on the Internet. On the other side, expensive gadgets and high data costs may work against high income earners’ use of the Internet.

1.2 Description of the Issue

The television industry has seen changes due to increasing globalization, fierce competition, and technological advancement; it is currently transitioning from analog to digital, and more recently, it is changing from content distribution over the airwaves to content delivery online. The development of streaming television programs via the Internet was made possible by the development of the Internet over time. According to statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2016, the number of Internet users in Nigeria increased from 78,740 in 2000 to 93,524,398 in August 2016. Due to this rise, Nigeria is now the continent’s top Internet user (Abikoye & Salihu, 2016). This is demonstrated by the fact that, as of August 2016, out of 182, 202 000 residents of Nigeria, about half (52.1% of the population) have access to the Internet. However, as Internet access grows, there is a lack of Internet infrastructure to support it. As a result, traffic on current Internet infrastructure increases, which has a detrimental impact on Internet broadband penetration. According to Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Internet broadband penetration was at 20 percent as of October 2016. By 2018, that percentage is expected to reach 30 percent. In an effort to broaden access to broadband, Globacom (GLO) network and MTN Nigeria joined the Smile Communications, Spectranet, IPNX, and Swift networks in rolling out 4G LTE in Nigeria in April 2016 and October 2016, respectively. Only subscribers in Lagos State are currently covered by Globacom, whereas Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt are covered by MTN. Although this is a significant advancement in Internet access, 4G wireless technology won’t have much of an impact on Internet broadband adoption until it can be widely deployed across the nation.

Furthermore, the National Broadband Plan (2013) highlighted that the high cost of Internet access continues to be a major barrier to having Internet in every home. Monopoly in the telecommunications sector and NCC regulation of data prices are two factors cited as contributing to the high cost of Internet data. However, the NCC’s deregulation of data prices in October 2015 and the abolition of the data floor price prompted the telecommunications sector to determine its own data prices. As a result, the price of data subscriptions has decreased. In May 2016, Airtel Nigeria was the first competition to lower the price of its data subscription. Subsequently, other rivals did the same. For instance, 1,000 naira could purchase more data in May 2016 than it could in 2015. Even while this is a significant accomplishment, watching television still requires a lot of data, which is also pricey. Additionally, the proposed communication tax in the midst of Nigeria’s current economic downturn has implications for television streaming, broadband access, and the cost of data subscriptions.

While it is anticipated that a 4G wireless network will offer wireless download speeds of about 1 Gbps in LANs and 100 Mbps in WANs, which is roughly 260 times faster than 3G wireless networks, a 4G network is not uniformly available. Because it is crucial for television operators to have access to reliable broadband facilities, the current Internet penetration issues may limit the extent to which television stations may actively participate in live streaming of programs. Television stations may find it difficult to adopt television streaming due to low speed Internet connectivity, subpar existing Internet infrastructure, and the digital divide in rural and urban areas (ITU, 2015; Mirza and Beltrán, 2014; Maciejewski, Fischer, and Roginska, 2014). Therefore, how easily accessible are television live and on-demand streams to Internet users, and how much computer literacy do respondents possess, if any, to accept television streaming? Do viewers find television streaming easy to adopt and helpful given the audience shift to new media technologies as a result of their interactivity and improved feedback, especially given the quantity of data subscription that is correspondingly expensive to watch television programs online? The needs of customers, which are what define the success of television streaming, are sometimes disregarded in earlier studies on new technologies (Yang & Kang, 2006). Furthermore, research has indicated that factors affecting audience demographics including wealth, age, gender, and educational attainment have a significant impact on Internet use.

These inquiries must be addressed because, according to the ITU (2015), watching television is no longer restricted to the sitting room and is now possible wherever there is an Internet connection. While developing nations are still working to adopt Internet-based television streaming, the lack of widespread broadband Internet connectivity will negatively affect how easily users can access television streaming content, which could further deter Internet users from watching television shows on television stations’ websites. Based on the foregoing, the researcher looked at how stakeholders in a few states in South-West Nigeria reacted to the introduction of television streaming.

1.3 The Study’s Objectives

The main goal of this study was to determine how Internet penetration affected stakeholders in South-West Nigeria’s adoption of television streaming. The precise goals are to:

1. determine the South-West of Nigeria’s Internet penetration rate;

2. find out how much South-West Nigerians use the websites of television stations to watch television;

3. study the extent to which residents’ adoption of television streaming in South-West Nigeria is influenced by their level of computer literacy;

4. assess the degree to which residents’ adoption of television streaming in South-West Nigeria is facilitated by perceived ease of use;

5. study the extent to which ease of usage encourages citizens of South-West Nigeria to adopt television streaming;

6. examine the obstacles that prevent South-West Nigerians from using streaming television;

7. determine the degree to which specific South-West Nigerian television stations have the necessary technology to create live feeds;

8. determine how frequently various South-West Nigerian television stations upload daily live or on-demand programming to the Internet;

9. learn about the obstacles that South-West Nigerian television stations face in adopting television streaming;

10. Learn about the huge variations in South-West Nigerian residents’ use of streaming television based on their demographics.

1.4 Questions for Research

1. What percentage of South-West Nigerians use the Internet?

2. What percentage of South-West Nigerians visit the websites of television stations to watch television shows?

3. How much do residents’ computer literacy abilities in South-West Nigeria encourage the use of television streaming?

4. How much does perceived simplicity of usage encourage citizens of South-West Nigeria to adopt television streaming?

5. How does ease of use encourage citizens of South-West Nigeria to use television streaming?

6. What obstacles prevent South-West Nigerian citizens from using television streaming?

7. How well-equipped are a few South-West Nigerian television stations with the necessary technologies to create live streams?

8. How frequently do a few South-West Nigerian television stations live-stream their everyday programming online?

9. What obstacles prevent South-West Nigerian television stations from implementing television streaming?

10. What are the key differences between people of South-West Nigeria in terms of the adoption of television streaming?

1.5 Propositions

H1 The adoption of streaming television by locals is greatly influenced by the availability of Internet infrastructure.

H2 South-West Nigerians’ acceptance of television streaming is substantially influenced by their access to the Internet.

Residents in South-West Nigeria’s adoption of streaming television is greatly influenced by H3 Broadband Penetration.

H4 Residents’ adoption of streaming television is greatly influenced by the cost of data subscriptions.

H5 Internet penetration, when regulated by South-West Nigerians’ attitudes, has a considerable impact on how they use streaming television.

H6 Demographic factors strongly affect citizens’ use of streaming television

H7 Computer literacy levels have a big impact on how South-West Nigerians use streaming television.

In South-West Nigeria, H8 Perceived Usefulness has a considerable impact on respondents’ adoption of television streaming.

In South-West Nigeria, the adoption of television streaming is significantly influenced by H9 Ease of Use.

H10South-West Nigerian individuals’ adoption of television streaming varies significantly depending on their demographic traits.

1.6 Importance of the Research

This study looked at how much Internet penetration affected stakeholders in South-West Nigeria’s adoption of television streaming. Few research have evaluated the degree to which Internet penetration effects the adoption of television streaming in Nigeria, where television has lately gained popularity. As a result, the researcher would greatly profit from the study’s findings because they would allow him or her to push the boundaries of what is known about television streaming research. Additionally, it will give other scholars empirical information on which to base future research on Nigeria’s use of new media and information and communication technologies. The International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) data bank would benefit from the study’s data regarding Internet usage in South-West Nigeria. The ITU would receive statistical data from this that they could use to determine the level of Internet penetration in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Broadcasting Commission, and Internet Service Providers would all benefit from this study because it would demonstrate the extent to which Internet access has spread throughout the research areas. At the same time, the study’s findings would show how difficult it is for stakeholders to access the Internet and how much the demographic makeup of the respondents affects how widely they use it. Therefore, this information would benefit the NCC and Internet Service Providers in their decision to enhance current communication policies that will enhance the nation’s Internet infrastructure. As a result, Internet access would be improved, high-speed Internet connectivity would be enabled, and the cost of Internet access would decrease.

Knowing how Internet users access and embrace television streaming might be useful information for television broadcasters. Knowing how research participants feel about the idea of streaming television would also be helpful to television stations. Findings would also assist television networks in identifying the difficulties that users of the Internet face while attempting to access streamed material on their websites and in making improvements in those areas to clear the way for a positive streaming experience.

1.7 Purpose of the Research

South-West Nigeria was the focus of this study on the impact of Internet penetration on the adoption of television streaming among stakeholders. Residents over the age of 18 and South-West television stations were the study’s stakeholders. Ages 18 and up were taken into account for this study because it is largely the conventional age for adulthood and independence. In addition, children under the age of 18 in Nigeria are mostly dependent on and subject to controls put in place by their parents and guardians to limit what they watch.

Two states were chosen by simple random sampling out of the six states in South-West Nigeria. On the other side, three television stations were chosen from three states in the South-West: one controlled by the federal government, one by the state, and one by a private company. From January 2016 to January 2017, this study was conducted. This is to guarantee that the literature read is contemporaneous with and from the time the data were collected.

The West Coast of Nigeria was chosen for this study because it is home to the fiber optic cables that feed the West Africa Aggregation of broadband infrastructure. As a result, it is likely that the West will have more widespread access to Internet infrastructure than other regions of the world.

1.8 Definitions of Operational Terms

Internet Penetration: The spread of the Internet is referred to as Internet Penetration. It refers to how much Internet access research participants in South-West Nigeria have. However, because it is composed of a number of other variables, Internet penetration is a hidden quantity and cannot be directly quantified. Internet Penetration, the independent variable, was therefore determined by

X = Unrelated variable

X1 represents the proportion of study participants who use the Internet,

X2 is the accessibility of the Internet infrastructure.

Broadband Internet access (X3)

Cost of Access = X4

Adoption: The dependent variable in this situation is adoption, which is divided into two categories. The usage of television streaming by television stations as a method of reaching people online is the first step in the adoption process. The regularity with which television stations upload their television shows to the Internet was used to gauge this. Second, adoption for South West locals who use the Internet refers to watching television shows on particular television channels online. The frequency with which Internet users visit television networks’ websites to watch their favorite shows served as the gauge for this.

Influence: This relates to how much Internet penetration affects how stakeholders use streaming television. The frequency of audience acceptance of television streaming, frequency of television stations streaming, and stakeholder access to Internet infrastructure were used to measure this.

Residents: Those residing in the chosen streets in the chosen wards must be at least 18 years old.

Television streaming: This is the process through which a few terrestrial television broadcasters allow their fans to watch their shows online live or on demand. This was measured directly because it is a manifest variable. In the context of this study, the terms “television streaming” and “Internet television” are interchangeable.

Residents of South-West Nigeria, Chief Engineers at NTA Ibadan, Television Continental, and Lagos State Television are considered stakeholders for the purposes of this study.

Internet infrastructure is the collective term for the current network infrastructure, which includes things like fiber optic cables, routers, wireless spectrum, electricity, and computer hardware. This was also determined by the methods used by respondents to access the Internet, including wired telephone methods like cable Internet connections or cellular telephone methods (3G or 4G on GSM).

The term “broadband penetration” refers to the availability of high-speed Internet connectivity that allows viewers to stream television shows in real time at a minimum of 1.5 Mbit/s on television station websites.

Attitude: This describes how people feel and behave toward streaming television. It serves as a moderating factor in this situation and was assessed based on tangible factors including physical causes, beliefs, likeability, and readiness to adopt television streaming.

Internet accessibility refers to the methods used to make it available to the respondents. This was assessed utilizing respondents’ individual or organizational subscription patterns, as well as the frequency of their subscriptions to various bouquet data plans offered by chosen telecommunications Internet service providers. Daily, weekly, monthly, and the size of the data bundle subscribed to were used to measure this.

Metropolitan: These Local Government areas have urban characteristics and features, such as a large number of small and medium-sized businesses. They are by nature industrialized. The inhabitants of these local government districts are likely to be technologically savvy enough to use computers and access necessary social services.

Non-Metropolitan: These Local Government areas are those that naturally have fewer urban areas and at least two of the following traits: core traditional areas, dilapidated buildings, poor sanitation, insufficient health facilities, slum settlements, high levels of illiteracy, and low socioeconomic activity levels.