Citi equity analyst Jason Bazinet said that password sharing costs U.S. streaming companies $25 billion annually in lost revenue, and Netflix owns about 25% of that loss.
“As streaming services move to center stage, thwarting this theft will be of growing importance for shareholders,” Bazinet wrote in a note to investors Monday morning.
The Citi analyst’s estimate comes 10 days after Bank of America published a note suggesting a “substantial percentage” of streaming subscribers are sharing their authentication credentials with friends, family and hangers-on outside their homes.
And research firm Magid said that about a third of all SVOD customers share their password with at least one other person.
For its part, Netflix began earlier this month testing a new crackdown, in which it is forcing users of its service outside the account holders IP address to use third-party authentication.
Netflix is also testing a 30-day free trial of its service.
