About 27% of all paid video service subscriptions in the U.S. are shared with others outside the household, according to Leichtman Research Group.
And around 16% of U.S. households use at least one subscription streaming video service that they don’t pay for.
The data comes at a time of increased awareness about the issue of password sharing. Netflix is looking at ways to clamp down on those who crib passwords from friends and family members. And Citi recently revealed estimates that password sharing costs U.S. streaming companies $25 billion annually—and Netflix $6 billion specifically.
For its latest report, Internet-Delivered Pay-TV Services 2021, LRG said it surveyed a robust cohort of 6,262 adult U.S. consumers.
“Password sharing is prevalent throughout the streaming video industry,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, in a statement. “Over a quarter of DTC streaming video services are shared with others outside the household, including 12% of all services that are ‘borrowed’ from someone else’s subscription. Yet, sharing of streaming services should not solely be viewed as lost revenue, as the ability to share with others is also part of the retention strategy for the services.”
LRG also found that 82% of U.S. homes now have at least one of the top 11 direct-to-consumer and subscription video services. And 51% of have at least three of these services.
