Beyond Binge-Watching: Mapping the Behavioural and Psychological Correlates of Regional OTT Consumption

Abstract

The global proliferation of Over-The-Top (OTT) content has irrefutably recast media consumption among Indian youth. Regional-language ecosystems like Odisha's Tarang Plus apprise us of a glocalised "OTT globalisation" streaming ethos in India, aphenomenon empirically yet to be fully interrogated. This study examines platform preference, viewing behaviour, and psychological outcomes amongst urban Odia youth, filling in the empirical gap in survey research on regional OTT consumption.

As characterised by the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) and Media Effects paradigm, [372] urban respondents were surveyed to chart usage typologies, including frequency, duration, time-of-day, device, platform choice and subscription motivations, behavioural and social correlates, and psychological outcomes of obsessive consumption, leading to the null hypothesis (Ho) test: OTT consumption intensity statistically significantly predicts behavioural, social and psychological outcomes.

Results indicated a statistically significant relationship between consumption intensity and outcomes ( = [Value], p <.001), refuting the Ho. Findings suggest a paradoxical nidus of wellbeing, wherein better neural shutdowns and sleep (T), and higher arousal with elevated stress levels (T), stand juxtaposed against resilient sleep patterns, despite binge-viewing, a contextual contradiction to OTT being not necessarily either (lovely/content) or (cursed/sleazy). Increased privacy-maintenance criteria in platform choice, one suspects, had less to do with comfort with viewing style than linguistic discrimination. Filling empirical lacunae in regional OTT lens, a theoretical study of vernacular platform consumption as a Uses-and-Gratifications-led glocalised media practice is posited with implications for youth media literacy, parental mediation, platform policy.