Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

People sharing streaming passwords is costing the industry $500 million a year

Are you using someone else’s Netflix or HBO Go password? Then you might owe part of the $500 million that credential sharing cost the streaming industry last year

According to a report from market research firm Parks Associates, some 6 percent of U.S. households are piggybacking off of other people’s accounts for streaming services (i.e. Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prim, Hulu, etc.).

“Live-streaming usage has garnered media attention recently, but credential sharing is also a popular form of piracy in the connected world, one that has received varying responses from service providers and content owners,” said Glenn Hower, a research analyst at Parks Associates. “Credential sharing has a measurable impact on video services, particularly in the OTT [over-the-top] 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 "People sharing streaming passwords is costing the industry $500 million a year" by Scott Sutton.

Previously In The News

Need help with your TV and smart-home setup? At-home tech support may be the answer.

Patrice Samuels, senior analyst at Parks Associates, a market research company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services, said demand for traditional technology support, like...

To Invade Homes, Tech Is Trying to Get in Your Kitchen

Yet the so-called smart kitchen remains a tough sell. With the kitchen often a hub for families and friends, habits there can be hard to change. And many people see the kitchen and mealtimes as a have...

TV antenna use surges amid coronavirus outbreak

That’s according to Parks Associates, which said that 25% of U.S. broadband households use an antenna to watch local broadcast TV channels, up from 15% in 2018. The firm said those figures could incre...

Sharing your TV streaming passwords? Cable companies won’t stop you—yet

Neither of these methods work particularly well, at least for the kind of casual sharing that’s pervasive among friends and family members. A survey earlier this year by Parks Associates found that 18...