It makes sense for the phenomenon to be so widespread: after all, why would two roommates or family members or even good friends have separate video streaming accounts when they can share a subscription? But, this 'mooching' phenomenon can eat into subscriber growth and profit.
The password-sharing number, from a USA Today poll, dovetails with a recent survey from Parks Associates that found such credential-sharing costs over-the-top (OTT) providers $500 million in revenue this year.
Parks found that 6% of US broadband households use an OTT video service that is paid by a person living outside of the household, but that number increases among millennials: 20% of OTT users aged 18-24 use an OTT video service paid by someone outside the home, the highest of any age group. Only 10% of OTT subscribers 25-34 admit to this behaviour.
Glenn Hower, research analyst at Parks Associates, commented: "Credential-sharing has a measurable impact on video services, particularly in the OTT video service area, where young subscribers are active. The impact on OTT video revenues is especially troublesome as OTT providers are investing large sums of money to boost their original content offerings."
From the article "Over a third share HBO NOW, other streaming passwords" by Michelle Clancy.
Those who prefer streaming video-on-demand aren’t shy about sharing passwords. About 6 percent of U.S. broadband households use an over-the-top video service paid by someone living outside of the hous...
“First-time adoption of pay TV is up among Spanish broadband households as is the penetration of pay TV overall. The Spanish pay-TV market in general has a very active, cost-conscious base of subscrib...
Amazon and Roku both have greater distribution in the U.S. than Apple TV. According to a Parks Associates report from last May, Roku has a 37 percent market share in the U.S., followed by Amazon Fire...
The move is expected to recoup major money for the video streaming giant: a separate report from Parks Associates found that by 2021, credentials sharing will account for $9.9 billion of losses in pay...