Managing sustainable adoption of digital terrestrial television: demand-side and supply-side approaches

Abstract

Purpose Digitization of terrestrial television enables government to reallocate a portion of spectrum to satisfy the 5G low-band spectrum demand. To accelerate the digitization process, the Indonesian Government has distributed digital terrestrial television (DTT) decoders for households in several DTT trial areas so that the recipients are able to experience DTT broadcasts on their analogue television. To ensure that the DTT is adopted sustainably, this study aims to provide evidence-based policy recommendations by first understanding underlying factors of the intention to purchase a new DTT receiver, either a new DTT decoder or an integrated digital television (DTV). Design/methodology/approach This study uses 2018 survey data collected by Badan Aksesibilitas Telekomunikasi dan Informasi. The samples consist of 433 DTT decoder recipients in nine DTT trial locations in Indonesia. Two logistic models are used, one model for the DTT decoder and the other for integrated DTV. The two models have identical predictors, including respondents' demographics, television media use, technology cluster and DTT-related factors as innovation attributes. Findings The results indicate that the two models share some relevant variables but varying in sign and magnitude, namely, respondents' geographical location and the DTT picture and sound quality. The results also show that pay-television subscription, TV viewing and the difficulty of using the DTT decoder are other factors significantly associated with the intention to purchase a new DTT decoder. Research limitations/implications This study has several limitations. First, the coefficients of determination are low, indicating that more independent variables should be included in the estimation models to obtain better insight about DTT adoption so that a better policy can be stipulated accordingly. Second, even though most of the predictors and proposed recommendations can be applied in general, all respondents of this study were DTT decoder recipients. Thus, future research can be more inclusive. Third, this study is designed based on the correlational model. This might cause the inability of the results to provide a conclusive direction of the relationship. Practical implications Demand-side and supply-side approaches are proposed to drive sustainable adoption of DTT, including the provision of subsidy or free DTT decoder for low-income households, increasing competition intensity among DTT devices manufacturers and distributors by allowing more players enter the Indonesian market, driving nationwide DTT infrastructure deployment and stipulating a national standard of the DTT devices. Originality/value This study enriches the understanding of the DTT adoption by incorporating geographical location variables for the proxy of infrastructure availability into the diffusion of innovation model, which has never been addressed by previous studies in the context of DTV adoption. In addition, this study focuses on a specific context in which all samples are free decoder recipients so that they have the same chance to experience DTT broadcasts.