OTT Users’ Continuance Intention and Recommendation Behaviour: Navigating Engagement, Experience and Subscription Costs

This research aims to study customer loyalty and customer engagement in the competitive Indian OTT space by considering factors, such as customer engagement, customer experience and subscription cost based on the content type (movies, TV shows or sports). Applying SEM and Hayes Process Macro on 390 users’ data, the study uncovers that perceived value is relatively more important than subscription costs in influencing user intentions. The findings underscore the importance of customer engagement, which is driven by immersive content and community participation and is essential for building loyalty and generating recommendations. The impact of both customer engagement and experience, however, varies by content type—TV shows and web series show the highest positive effect. Our findings highlight that user acquisition tactics currently drive the OTT platforms; providing personalized, high-quality experiences is critical not only for retaining users but also for building long-term relationships. The insights offer actionable strategies to build and maintain audience engagement in a rapidly changing marketplace.