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More Than Half of Streaming Users In US Are Sharing Their Passwords, Says Report (streamingobserver.com)
A new study conducted by Fluent shows a majority of Americans are sharing passwords to their streaming video services. While millennials lead the pack, non-millennials are doing the same. Streaming Observer reports: Nearly 3 out of every 4 (72% exactly) Americans who have cable also have access to at least one streaming service and 8% of cable subscribers plan to eliminate their service in the next year. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're paying for their streaming service. New numbers from a study conducted by Fluent show that the majority of Americans are sharing passwords to their streaming video services. Well over half of millennials (aged 18-34) -- 60% -- are either using someone someone else's password or giving their password to someone else. And just under half -- 48% -- of non-millennials are doing the same. The study also revealed that the main factor in what drives consumers to sign up for streaming video services is price, with 34% of Americans saying that low cost was the primary factor. That number jumps to 38% among millennials. When you take in to account that some streaming TV services start with prices as low as $20, it makes sense that price is the biggest issue. Convenience was the next biggest factor, coming in at just below 25%.
They forgot to adjust for the large number of millennials who are transgender, so "Bob Smith" and "Bobbie Smith" might actually be the same account holder.
Is that so illegal?
1234isnotapassword
Feel free to use it.
Also, this just in!!!
50% of humans make up half the world population.
Netflix allows you to share your login with multiple people with certain plans. You are limited only by how many concurrent devices are actively using it. Wonder if this skews the survey results at all?
A close friend has Netflix which I use her login for kids shows. I have Amazon Prime (Grand Tour mostly) and she uses my login. Times are tough and nobody is going to enroll in every streaming service because of their exclusive content.
Damn kids, stop using my "password" as your password.
It's my "password" not your "password".
Netflix basic accounts expect 2 - 3 simultaneous streams. One person can normally watch one at a time. In talking to Netflix support, I have even told them that 2 - 3 may be using it at one time and it didn't seem to faze them at all.
In the same household? Relatives? Same family using different devices in different locations?
Whoever thinks they have a handle on "streaming password sharing" is just making up assumptions based on very soft data.
Soon, once your computer is hardware-locked so that you can't do anything with it unless Microsoft allows it and you can't run unapproved software or development tools without an expensive, licensed, rented workstation, you'll be protected from terrible copyright infringement with built-in DRM. In fact, it even has a feature that automatically turns you in and cancels your ISP subscription if you even try, and calculate the theoretical loss into real-time price increases. Fear not, the media corporations will prevail and continue to produce massive profits for their executives and shareholders! Isn't it great?
(yes, I'm being sarcastic)
Full McEmployment. Everyone distrusted Obama's numbers but they blindly trust Trump's.
I just steal content. I don't have to rationalize it. I'd steal it from the store too. They don't lose any sleep ripping us off so cry me a river about your imaginary property.
So we can use them and increase the statistics. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Just use XBMC/KODI.
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As someone involved with a similar service: Of course they do. And they know very well when you're doing it, too, because the differences in access patterns are obvious.
In the long run, turning a blind eye to people who are bending the rules a bit often works out better for everyone than cracking down on the slightest infringement. The business gets to keep customers who are paying their way (more or less) happy and loyal. The basically decent customers get to use the service in ways that are convenient at a price they can afford. And any resources available to deal with piracy can be directed to those who are flagrantly violating the agreement.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I share my Netflix and Hulu Plus logins. I personally might get maybe 5 hours per month of TV time most of the year with the times I watch most might still hit at most 20 hours per month. I share it with a few family members and honestly, the kids are the main ones who use it at my house too while they are here.
If I didn't share it, I wouldn't pay for it at all as I don't watch it enough to be worth my time and the main stuff I do watch is on CW which I can already watch for free from their site and if I want to get back into the Walking Dead, they have their own app for that too for free.
It just honestly isn't worth my trouble for me to use it personally unless I pay for it with the intent of letting those I care about use it as well.
Even if 75% of Netflix traffic was "pirated", if they can get 25% of every customer in every cable market in the country to pay them $10/month, how happy would they be? Let 75% steal, then ratchet down, maybe, later after they buy Comcast in 10 years. We're just changing from Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner, DirecTV to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Google, and many users will pay for multiple of these at $10/month.
I like music
I got the username/password from my sister, who got it from my Mom, who got it from someone she works with. Beyond that, who knows?
Graduating in 2000 and not a millennial...
Maybe you are just damn wrong.
I live in a two person household, and we often enough are both streaming separate Netflix programs. We mostly stream to our Android tablets. (my wife's OLED Galaxy Tab S is just about the most color/contrast rich way there is to watch video content. I have a cheaper tablet)
The whole interface of the Android Netflix app is set up for multiple individuals using the account. We each have our separate icon and separate 'favorites' and records of what shows in a series we watch.
well, very happy, depending on how much per view they have to pay the content creators/owners/rentseekers and for transmit.
thats what it boils down to. for netflix produced content it doesn't matter that much, as long as it's getting viewed.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I have no idea how my password got out, I'm so careful!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
What percentage of traditional cable/satellite services share their accounts? Its has to be extremely high. I don't think I know of a single household that has an individual account for every member of their family. Unless they live alone. The system seems to expect this. That is why they have parental controls so they can limit the viewing privileges of non account holders. Granted you don't need a password to access most things on cable/satellite television, but its account sharing all the same.
no shit, sherlock. if you're bumming a ride off someone else's subscription.. cost is *THE* factor.
when the net closes and becomes nothing but a fucking toll road, the streaming services will start to lock down subscriptions to a single household or ip, nix the sharing of accounts, AND raise rates to compensate for cable companies' double-dipping.
cable and satellite, with their grossly overpriced services, will see an uptick in subscribers thanks to the idiots in charge at the fcc and congress.
time to sell NFLX, it's going to tank... hard.
I think most will implement device limiting factors eventually as Netflix does with its packages. So only so many can access the site at a time. After all this is not something you own, you are paying a fee to access content but you never own it. Some like Amazon also have you register devices and so it knows what devices access their products for a certain account. Some have even offered a "family" plan or sharing plan. So I am not sure that this is stealing, but it certainly reflects that many do want something for nothing.
...TV services start with prices as high as $20...
There, I fixed it for you.
Sharing passwords? That's crazy, how are you supposed to re-use the same password on your bank account if you just hand it out? I won't even share my IP address on the Internet.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
incorrect That way, when I put it in wrong, the box pops up and says Your password is INCORRECT
I may be smithcl8, I may be Anonymous Coward. What's it to ya, as long as I say nice things?
The number wouldn't be nearly as sensational if they weren't double-counting. Give me either the number of people sharing their passwords or the number using shared passwords.
Statutory damages for a tune is $75,000, so there should be statutory damages of $7,500,000 for password sharing, that'd teach those thieving no good pirates.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Would my password count as "shared" because the account is in my wife's name yet I use it as well as my kids? It's a "family" account yet you still have one login credential. By definition you have to share it, it's not like each family member signs in under their own unique login, like Amazon Prime Family and Spotify Family do. They just provide profiles for the shared account. As my kids grow up and move on the cost is so low I wouldn't care if they kept using it, the cost of Netflix pales in comparison of the other financial support I'm on the hook for until they are living on their own.
> Nearly 3 out of every 4 (72% exactly)
What's the point of dumbing down the percentage and then mentioning it specifically. In the same sentence?
I'm pretty sure nerds have a concept of what "72%" means.
Stachel
In the long run, turning a blind eye to people who are bending the rules a bit often works out better for everyone than cracking down on the slightest infringement.
Or in Netflix's case they just monetized it with the multiple active screens at a time tiers. I wish they'd go all in and allow you to assign different logins on one account.
I love it, because my kids have access even when at their mother's house. By putting the login info on the kids' phones they can cast to the TVs at my ex's house, but my ex doesn't get access when our kids are with me. :)
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
and many users will pay for multiple of these at $10/month.
Damn straight!
I have Prime (GT, and shipping so I don't have to interface with people at the store) and Netflix (everything else). No need to pay $60/mo for the three or four channels I would actually watch, and be limited to the broadcasters schedule. When I had a TV package I actually lost the remote I used it so little... Which sucked when I cancelled the TV service. Cost me $20 for the remote I couldn't find.
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
> Netflix ... maybe, later after they buy Comcast in 10 years.
Wishful thinking doesn't change reality no matter how much we wish it was true. As much as I hate to "defend" Comcast, let's take a look at the facts shall we:
* Comcast is a Fortune 37 company with a Market cap of 190 Billion, Revenue is $8,163 Million, Assets $166,574 Million.
* Netflix is a Fortune 379 company with a Market cap of 70 Billion, Revenue is $123 Million, Assets $10,203 Million.
Netflix buying a company that has 66x their revenue and 16x their assets within 10 years LOL, yeah right. Not going to happen. But I have a bridge to sell you ...
Netflix can't afford the License renewal fees -- so they started making their own original shows. Netflix is not interested in streaming live sporting events. They also don't own any of the physical infrastructure that the cable guys do. All Netflix does is leech off of the existing internet infrastructure of everyone else. Netflix buying an ISP is ridiculous at best. They are in a completely different market space.
The bigger question is "Why hasn't Comcast already bought Netflix?" The answer, I suspect, is that because they already own a 30% stake in Hulu
Clearly, it's not that difficult from a technical standpoint to put a stop to the password sharing. Just make sure that as soon as someone logs in successfully, any previous/existing sessions are immediately disconnected and logged out. And if the IP address of the client changes to indicate it's on a different ISP or part of the country? Just make the owner do something to verify it before it turns back on. That would create enough hassle for account sharers so they'd be discouraged from doing it.
The only reason password sharing is allowed to take place is because these services know where they stand. They're offering services that are luxuries, not necessities. And while they can't price the services below what they're supposed to be paying out in royalties or rights to stream the content, they know a lot of people will just pay ZERO and not use them at all if the monthly fees are too much of a burden.
I suspect if you sell one account (even knowing full well it's going to get shared among 2 or 3 people), at least you only have to pay any streaming rights out, counting it as ONE additional viewer. And that's one more subscription sold....