According to an online poll conducted by Reuters this week, 12-percent of people who stream video content do so from someone else’s account — and that could be taking its toll on Netflix’s revenue.
The report says that 12-percent of adults admit to logging into a streaming service — Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, etc — using someone else’s credentials. The number rises to 21-percent for people aged 18-24.
Quartz uses that figure, the number of households which say they have Netflix (54-percent of American adults), and the price of a Netflix subscription to estimate that Netflix could be missing out on almost $400 million in revenue.
So what does that mean for those services? Reuters suggests password sharing could be responsible for a slow-down in Netflix’s revenue growth — analysts expect a drop from 31-percent to 19-percent by next year.
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An analyst quoted by Reuters says Netflix could lose up to $519 million in revenue by 2019 to the same cause. If revenue drops any more, Netflix might have to crack down on password sharing.
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