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Netflix May Be Losing $192 Million Per Month From Piracy, Study Claims (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the missed-revenue dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: As many as 1 in 5 people today are mooching off of someone else's account when streaming video from Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Video, according to a new study from CordCutting.com. Of these, Netflix tends to be pirated for the longest period -- 26 months, compared with 16 months for Amazon Prime Video or 11 months for Hulu. That could be because Netflix freeloaders often mooch off their family instead of a friend -- 48 percent use their parents' login, while another 14 percent use their sister or brother's credentials, the firm found. At a base price of $7.99 per month (the study was performed before Netflix's January 2019 price increase), freeloading users could save $207.74 over a 26-month period. At scale, these losses can add up, the study claims.

The report estimates Netflix could be losing $192 million in monthly revenue from piracy -- more than either Amazon or Hulu, at $45 million per month and $40 million per month, respectively. Millennials, not surprisingly, account for much of the freeloading. They're the largest demographic pirating Netflix (18 percent) and Hulu's service (20 percent). But oddly, it was Baby Boomers who were more likely to borrow someone else's account to access Amazon Prime Video. According to the study, 59.3 percent said they would pay for Netflix (or around 14 million people), contributing at least $112 million in monthly revenue, if they lost access. And 37.8 percent, or 2 million, said they'd pay for Hulu; 27.6 percent, or 1 million people, said they'd pay for Prime Video.

7 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. Again this rubish? by LavouraArcaica · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Again this bulshit-study where it is assumed that every pirated-material would be purchased if piracy wouldn't be on the table?

    That's so 90's...

    1. Re: Again this rubish? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In addition to that, by what bullshit definition is watching something owned by a friend or family member considered piracy?

      I agree, this study is utter rubbish.

    2. Re:Again this rubish? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is the same bullshit when people say New York lost 25,000 jobs because they didn't want to subsidize Amazon. The jobs were never created so nothing was lost.

      Just like these people would never have paid for the content so nothing is lost, right?

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    3. Re:Again this rubish? by pr0fessor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Netflix doesn't just charge by account but also each tear of service has a different number of max streams 2 for the standard account and 4 for the premium. It's not really piracy if someone is paying extra for more streams?

       

  2. Watching together by religionofpeas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder how much money they are losing because family members watch a movie together, instead of each streaming to their own account ?

  3. Re:Faulty assumption by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This assumes that 100% of the moochers would have paid for an account if they didn't mooch.

    Actually TFA quite clearly states that it assumes 59.3% moochers would have paid for an account if they didn't mooch, based on a survey where 59.3% of the respondents who answered that they were currently sharing someone else's single-user-only Netflix account ALSO answered that if they lost access to that account they'd go and pay for an account of their own.

  4. I once lost 10 billion by Gabest · · Score: 5, Funny

    By not playing the lottery.