The sharing of streaming accounts between households in Sweden is widespread.
According to the consultancy Mediavision, close to 1.4 million SVOD subscriptions were shared outside the paying household at the turn of the year. This equates to annual revenue losses in the region of SEK 900 million.
Several companies are now reviewing the possibilities of limiting sharing. Netflix became the first platform to impose visible restrictions on sharing and in the past few weeks Disney has announced plans to address the issue. However, Mediavision CEO Marie Nilsson warns any clampdown on password sharing could have consequences of its own.
“Almost half of all SVOD households in Sweden share at least one subscription outside the household, which shows how widespread the phenomenon is,” she says. “Many have made a habit of this and if the households are “forced” to prioritize, the risk of services being opted out increases. However, it is likely that all actors will review password sharing, which will possibly lead to both increased customer movement and more customers for the SVOD services.”
If sharing was stopped, the Swedish SVOD market could potentially grow up to 16% compared to today’s levels. The number of subscriptions would increase from today’s 7.3 million to 8.7 million. Based on average household spend on stand-alone streaming subscriptions, the lost revenue is estimated to a value of close to SEK 900 million per year.
