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I know a guy who used to work at Hulu, which unsurprisingly gives its employees a free account they can use to stream The O.C. until their heart’s content.
Being the nice guy he is, he decided to share his login info with a couple of friends. However, a few weeks later he was unexpectedly called into a meeting, where he was informed his account had been flagged because 72 different people had access to it.
One of the main reasons streaming services took off was that the cord-cutters who flocked to them were tired of shelling out a ton of money to pay for cable.
However, we’ve now reached a point where there are so many options out there that if you want to subscribe to the most popular streaming platforms you’re still going to have to pony up upwards of $40 a month.
Thankfully, many people are able to avoid this fate thanks to the moral grey area that is password sharing.
When your friend pays for Netflix and hooks you up with the password. pic.twitter.com/RO5AYIulVX
— Joey Judd (@JuddyJoe) May 19, 2014
I’m willing to bet you have access to at least one service with more than a degree of separation between you and the person who’s actually paying for it, and according to CNBC, you’re not alone.
A new study has revealed 35 percent of millennials share streaming passwords with each other, which is about 64 percent less than I would have guessed.
While some companies have started to crack down on people who take advantage of the fact that their parents still have cable, it seems like most streaming companies don’t mind that they’re missing out on millions of dollars in revenue every year.
HBO has been tolerating the practice for a few years now and the CEO of Netflix suggested it could actually be a way for companies to eventually get people to subscribe on their own in the event they lose access in some tragic accident.
https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/642836170506809344
You haven’t felt true pain until you’ve lost access to HBO halfway through The Wire.