Media Platform Competition - Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies - page 265

The Chi-square analysis showed that there
is no correlation between the time displacement
effect and the users' demographics.

used the interactive program guide, and 13.7%
used the “searching for news and information”
service.
IPTV users subscribing to cable TV or digital
cable TV all considered the entertainment function
to be more important than the information func-
tion. As for the IPTV users who also subscribed
to digital cable TV, their main concerns included
the diversity of programs (27.8%), family interests
(16.7%) and more channels (16.7%)(see Table 2).
In analyzing the entertainment and information
functions that cable TV and IPTV provide, this
study indicates that most of the users considered
the entertainment function more than the informa-
tion function. Cable TV provides more than 100
channels. Digital cable TV provides even more
channels and a better quality picture. As for IPTV,
even though it only provides thirty more channels,
it has VOD services. The users can select the
programs at their convenience.

3. Functional Approach

Kayany & Yelsma (2000) indicated that “the
functional niche of any new medium does not
occur instantly but over time”. It might thus be
inappropriate to measure the functional displace-
ment effect on the existing media in the early
stage of the new medium's adoption because of
the novelty effect of the new medium. Since this
study only focuses on TV platforms and IPTV is
a new service, it might be too early to analyze the
functional displacement effect of IPTV on cable
TV. Therefore, this study used the “functional
approach” instead of “functional displacement”
to perform the following analysis.

i. Functional considerations for subscription

ii. Functional considerations and IPTV viewing
hours More than forty percent of IPTV users sub-

scribed to IPTV because of the entertainment
function (41.7%, n=190) provided by IPTV.
27.1% of users subscribed for the information
function and 26.1% for the VOD function. Only
5.1% subscribed for the interactive function. The
main reasons why people subscribed to the IPTV
subscription included the triple play's (telephone,
broadband, and IPTV) special deal (21.1%,
n=120), the diversity of programs (14.9%), the
reasonable price (11.1%), and other promotions
(11.0%). Obviously, forty-three percent subscribed
because of economic considerations. With regard
to frequently used services, 52.4% (n=216) of
IPTV subscribers used the VOD function, 14.3%

After ANOVA was conducted, this study found
that there was a significant correlation between
functional considerations and IPTV viewing hours
(F[2,243]=3.080, p<.05). The IPTV subscribers
who considered more of the information function
spent more time on IPTV (see Table 3).

iii. Time displacement effect and the functional
approach

This study also tried to examine whether there
was any correlation between the time displacement
effect on cable TV platform and the functional ap-

Table 1. IPTV viewing for non-subscription and subscription of cable TV

Still subscribe Stop cable subscription t Sig.

IPTV viewing (min)
per day

49.60
(n=110)

123.69
(n=337)

-6.418** .000

** Significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)