Amazon Prime Video allows you three streams and up to 6 profiles on their service.
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When word first erupted on social media earlier this month that Neftlix was testing a crackdown on unauthorized credential sharing, it struck fear into the hearts of those who have been watching “Bridgerton” or “Murder Among the Mormons” using someone else’s account. Had the days of mooching off a college roomie’s account shared with you five years ago finally come to an end?
In an era when new streaming services seem to launch every week, and when streaming entertainment has taken center stage in a pandemic, unauthorized sharing takes on bigger import as competition for subscription revenue soars.
It certainly has been on the minds of executives at Netflix and other streaming services for some time. As far back as October 2019, a Netflix executive said that the unauthorized sharing of credentials was something that was being monitored, but there were no immediate plans for a crackdown. That’s despite the fact that, at the time, a Magid study found account-sharing was likely costing the company $135 million every month. Netflix had about 167 million users globally then.
Fast-forward to early 2021. Netflix now has 220 million users, and the sharing of passwords obviously costs them a lot more. The company hasn’t said how many of its connections are suspect, but estimates range from 15% to 30%. And that explains why the company was caught testing a crackdown process, asking some users via an onscreen prompt to confirm if they were the account holder.
Netflix has a lot more competition than it did two years ago. Many of the content providers that licensed shows and movies to it have created streaming services of their own. All this means that those who yearn for a deep bench of content to watch now have many pipers to pay.
All these offerings have different configurations, with protections against account swapping baked in, such as limits to the number of simultaneous streams and profiles per account. Each has a different set of rules in its terms of service for restricting access. I spent a full day reading through the documents for the most popular ones. I also reached out to representatives for the Big 5 of streaming – Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video – but those who responded didn’t want to talk for the record.
Here’s what I learned about how you can and cannot share streaming service passwords. In many cases, it’s clear as mud:
Twitter users who use Netflix accounts that might not be their own first raised the alarm about the ... [+]
• Netflix has the most straightforward and restrictive terms, declaring simply: “The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.” As I noted in the Stream This section of last week’s newsletter, exactly what is meant by “household” is left up in the air. Does it mean a physical location, a home? Or does a household mean the people living there and those who revolve in its orbit? I used the example of my 91-year-old mother, living a few miles away in a retirement community. I consider her a part of my “household,” but would Netflix?
Netflix controls access by offering price tiers that limit the number of concurrent streams. A basic account is $8.99 and only allows for one stream, which is not going to be popular with credential-sharers. You get two concurrent streams at $13.99 and four at $17.99.
• HBO Max, which has just 17.2 million U.S. subscribers (41.5 million if you include traditional HBO), throws in a new wrinkle in its terms: “Authorized Users are limited to members of your immediate family or household only.” Again, neither “immediate family” nor “household” is defined. Is “immediate family” just the relatives living under one’s roof? Or, would it be closest blood relatives: In my case, my sister, my mom, my two kids? Who knows?
The has just one price tier at the moment – $14.99 for three concurrent streams and up to five profiles, a price inherited from its previous incarnation as HBO Now, and similar to the price required to add HBO as a premium service on a cable TV bundle. Higher pricing typically inspires more credential sharing, and most of HBO Max’s competitors charge less.
But this could change. HBO Max is considering adding a cheaper, ad-supported tier.
• Disney+ just passed the 100-million-subscriber mark. For $6.99 a month, it allows four simultaneous streams and seven user profiles – one of the most generous offerings, given its price and deep selection. Its subscriber agreement(which it shares with ESPN+, another Disney property) says users may not “share your login credentials with third parties.” There’s no definition of “third parties.” Is that anyone outside your household, your immediate family? Unlike other terms documents, the word “household” does not appear.
Later in the document, there’s a little more detail but it doesn’t clear things up much: “Only individuals that have registered for a Disney+ and/or ESPN+ account, provide certain information (e.g., a valid email address), and agree to the Subscriber Agreement are eligible to use the Disney+ Service and/or ESPN+ Service.”
It’s safest to assume that the limitations are household-based, even if that specific word doesn’t appear.
• Hulu is now owned by Disney but it has its own terms of service for its 39.4 million subscribers. It limits access to households, without a definition: “You are responsible for all use of your account, including use of your account by other members of your household.”
The basic Hulu plan limits you to two simultaneous streams for $6.99 a month with six profiles, and pricing escalates with the Live TV plans to as high as $84.99 a month – but you still only get two streams. Live TV, a faux-cable bundle which includes local channels, is location-based.
But here’s something interesting: If you have one of the Live TV packages, you can pay $9.99 a month to get unlimited simultaneous streams.
• Amazon Prime Video is a different beast because, in most cases, it’s part of your overall Amazon Prime account. Sharing these credentials outside your immediate sphere means anyone using them could buy anything on Amazon’s site with your account, a big disincentive to share out a password. Its conditions of use document says that you “are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your account,” but doesn’t define limits on who you can get access.
However, Prime has a feature for family access called Amazon Household. You can give any other adult with his or her own Amazon account access to your Prime benefits, including Video. In addition, you can add up to four children and up to four teens.
An Amazon Prime account costs $12.99 a month, you get free shipping from Amazon and Prime Video is an extra perk. There’s also an $8.99-a-month standalone Prime Video subscription, and in both cases you’re limited to three simultaneous streams and six profiles.
They're All Watching You
In talking to representatives from all of these services except Amazon, it’s clear that, while there are no sweeping enforcement actions against shared credentials, they are all monitoring and they know when unauthorized password sharing is occurring. They can tell, for example, if users are signed on to the same account from different locations or IP addresses. They can see what types of devices are being used.
“At the end of the day, password sharing is like playing a game of whack-a-mole,” said Rich Greenfield, general partner at LightShed Ventures, who covers streaming media. “There is always going to be some level of password sharing in a world where it’s so easy to share.”
Greenfield said that, for streaming companies – and particularly those just starting out – sharing is both “part marketing and part opportunity.”
“But as you get bigger and bigger, you start wanting to attack that opportunity,” he added.
Which likely explains why Netflix, the biggest streamer, is sniffing around the edges of a crackdown with its test. As it gets bigger and its growth slows and competitors nip at its heels in a crowded landscape, those who watch without paying become a new market to be tapped. Finding a way to convince moochers to pay up could be lucrative, but will also require finesse.
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