For a sizable minority of Netflix viewers, sharing remains caring, with a new survey finding that 33% of Netflix services show up on screens in multiple households.
This study, released Tuesday by Leichtman Research Group, finds that 64% of respondents pay for Netflix and keep their logins within their own household; 15% share their service with others; 15% are recipients of such generosity; and 3% split both a subscription and costs with other households. The remaining 3% don’t pay for Netflix because it comes free with another service.
Historically, Netflix has brushed off worries about password sharing and suggestions that it would have to crack down on it. Last April, co-CEO Reed Hastings said on an earnings call that “we would never roll something out that feels like turning the screws.”
But in mid-March, Netflix announced that it would test a “sub account” plan, at roughly $2.99 a month, in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, because account sharing was denting its ability to “invest in great new TV and films for our members.”
In the US, Netflix bumped up all of its rates in January by $1 to $2, with the Standard high-def streaming plan increasing from $13.99 a month to $15.49 and the Premium 4K plan escalating from $17.99 to $19.99. A year and a half earlier, Netflix had instituted a comparable rate hike. But unlike traditional pay-TV services that continue to bleed subscribers, it does not require one- or two-year contracts or pad out the total with fine-print fees.
We asked Netflix to comment on Leichtman’s findings and will update this post if they respond.
Leichtman’s survey, conducted online among 4,400 US 18-and-older respondents in February with a statistical margin of error of plus or minus 1.5%, found similar levels of account sharing among streaming services overall.
For example, the study finds that 29% of all direct-to-consumer streaming services are shared outside the household and 12% are enjoyed entirely on another household’s subscription. In the coveted 18-to-34-year-old demographic, a full 34% of people watched at least one direct-to-consumer service on other people’s money.
“Password sharing is an inherent feature of most streaming services,” Leichtman President and Principal Analyst Bruce Leichtman said in a statement. “Sharing helps to expand the user base and retain customers, but it also creates a gap between the number of households that have a service and actual paying subscribers.”
