The Asian Journal of Technology Management Vol. 15 No. 2 (2022): 126-140 *Corresponding author. Email: rafiati.kania@polban.ac.id Received: September 29 th , 2022; Revised: October 13 th , 2022; Accepted: October 22 th , 2022 Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12695/ajtm.2022.15.2.3 Print ISSN: 1978-6956; Online ISSN: 2089-791X. Copyright@2022. Published by Unit Research and Knowledge School of Business and Management-Institut Teknologi Bandung 126 Understanding Behavioral Intention to Subscribe to Video- On-Demand Platforms During The COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Indonesia Rafiati Kania * , Nabila Shafira Ramadhani, Nono Wibisono, and Arie Indra Gunawan Marketing Management Department, Politeknik Negeri Bandung Abstract. Subscriber-based video-on-demand (SVoD) platforms saw significant business growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to restrictions on movement, the Indonesian government strictly regulated visiting the cinema during the COVID-19 outbreak. Consequently, film providers and consumers adopted SVoD services as alternative digital platforms. However, Indonesian subscriptions currently lag behind other countries. In addition, a survey from 2019 by the Coalition Against Piracy discovered that 63% of Indonesian consumers opt to access illegal streaming services instead of paying subscription fees to video streaming providers. This research empirically examines the social influences, perceived risks, hedonic motivations, and utility values that affect behavioral intention to understand what factors influence paying subscriptions. The hypotheses proposed in our research model are tested on a sample of 291 Indonesian SVoD platform subscribers. The partial-least square modeling result shows that social influence, hedonic motivation, and utilitarian value can, directly and indirectly, influence behavioral intention. Contrary to our research hypotheses, the perceived risk of adopting illegal streaming videos only indirectly influences behavioral intention. Finally, it is noted that a combination of external and internal consumer motivations impact the intent to subscribe to a SVoD platform. Keywords: Indonesia, movie piracy, behavioral intention, video streaming service, video-on-demand 1. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruption to people’s everyday lives, and subsequent mobility restrictions implemented in response to the pandemic changed how people access entertainment. Several studies reported that the use of movie streaming platforms by Indonesians increased during the COVID-19 pandemic (Farveen, 2020; Media Partner Asia, 2021). According to Nagaraj et al. (2021), movie streaming service providers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HOOQ adopted subscription-based video-on- demand (SVoD) services to harness the huge growth of internet usage. Although SVoD services have experienced robust growth in Indonesia, the number of SVoD subscribers lags behind compared with other countries (Purnamaningsih et al., 2019). According to a survey conducted by Kominfo and The Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) of the Asian Video Industry Association, 63% of Indonesian online consumers prefer to access illegal streaming service sites instead of paying subscription fees (AVIA, 2019). At the country level, illegal streaming services could result in unfair competition in the film industry because those who produce pirated content have larger audiences than the original producers. Furthermore, gambling and pornographic advertisements that exist in illegal streaming services could violate Indonesian censorship laws on film content that aim to ensure content is suitable for film viewers (Baittri, 2021). In the long run, a consumer’s choice to access illegally streamed movies will impact the fairness of competition in the film industry and increase adverse piracy behavior (Malin & Fowers, 2009).