Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Netflix Password Sharing: Is It Piracy?

An article by MarketWatch includes comments from Goldman Sachs Analyst Heath Terry, who suggests the possible intent of Netflix behind targeting the HD plan. “We believe a targeted price change like this is designed to reduce excessive password sharing by incentivizing users to switch to the 1-screen plan,” Terry said.

The price of both single screen streaming plans and the two-screen HD plan is the same at $7.99. An important question is whether password sharing outside the home is really a piracy threat to major companies like Netflix.

The answer to this is no, but this does not mean that it is not prevalent, the report says. In a study earlier this year, Parks Associates found that nearly 57% of the U.S. households access an over-the-top video account, which could be Netflix, Hulu or HBO Go, but 11% of Netflix, 10% of Hulu Plus and 5% of Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers make use of an account for which payments are made by someone else.

From the article "Netflix Password Sharing: Is It Piracy?" by Aman Jain.

Previously In The News

Apple releases new streaming TV devices with lower prices

Still, many customers appear drawn to cheaper sticks and pucks made by Roku and Amazon, with the companies commanding 80% of the streaming device market, according to new research shared by Parks...

Comcast and Charter face a grim new reality: actual competition

“Across the nation, all sorts of internet service providers have gained two new competitors,” says Kristen Hanich, the research director for Parks Associates, referring to T-Mobile and Verizon. “They...

For Apple TV, The Price Is The Problem

In late 2014, Amazon launched the Fire TV Stick for $40. Compared to the $100 Fire TV box that launched earlier that year, the Stick had significant performance hiccups, and the first version of its r...

Lots of people are canceling HBO Now and Amazon Prime, study says

Last month, Parks Associates released new research suggesting cancellation rates for over-the-top services have held steady at about 18% for the past three years. “With OTT service penetration star...