Audience and Media Predictors for Digital Content Purchases : A Multilevel Approach

Previous studies on willingness to pay for digital content have mainly focused on audience factors and individual level. To complement the limitation of previous research, this study conducts a multilevel analysis to find the factors influence digital content purchases considering two axes: audience/media factors and individual/household levels. Using a sample of 10,172 individuals within 4,313 households, the analysis results show individual media factors including theater-going, experience with cloud services, and multi-screen service usage have the greatest effects on digital content purchases. At the household level, the media ownership factors that the number of laptops, wireless routers, and tablets have a greater influence than audience factors such as household size or household income. Our findings help scholars to enhance the understanding of individuals’ media use considering household environmental factors and shed light on the importance of multi-screen service usage, and content providers to improve their digital content sales using multi-screen environment.