The Pandemic and the Perception of Streaming Portals by Polish Viewers

Theoretical background: The COVID-19 pandemic has become a kind of change, forcing the development and adaptation of specific online tools that were not as evolutionary as revolutionary. The sanitation regime introduced, and the subsequent lockdowns have forced societies to adjust to the situation at short notice. It can be presumed that the situation in the Polish VoD services market during the COVID-19 pandemic was also transformed, particularly since lockdowns had to be introduced and the cinema industry was virtually frozen. Purpose of the article: The article focuses on the Polish market for Video-on-Demand services. The aim of the paper was to determine what features of streaming portals are most important for Polish viewers. The result of the chosen objective is to present recommendations that can positively influence the strategies of streaming portals. Research methods: The study was conducted in August 2021, nearly a year and a half after the first COVID-19 infection in Poland. The article poses a complementary research question on how individual groups assess the importance of specific features of streaming portals. The research material was obtained through a survey conducted on 1,000 respondents. The study used Importance Index taking values from the range [-1;1]. Main findings: The survey showed that the assessed features of streaming portals are essential for the respondents, the most important of which was the possibility for the respondents to watch at home. On the other hand, among the variants of variables describing social groups for which particular features were more important, women, students, people living with someone, and generally young or middle-aged people dominated.