Deloitte researchers found that password borrowing is more prominent among consumers than watching pirated content: Fifteen percent of respondents use someone else’s SVOD password, compared with 7% who watch pirated TV shows or movies. Four percent do both.
Gen Zers and millennials were found more likely to report being password borrowers and pirated content watchers – perhaps due to a higher level of tech-savviness or lower amounts of disposable income.
Home finances, frustration and convenience
Password borrowers are driven by cost savings, whereas pirated content watchers are motivated by quick access to hard-to-find content, said Deloitte.
53% of password borrowers have cancelled, or churned through, a paid streaming video service in the previous six months, motivated by a desire to save money as streaming services continue to raise their prices. Over half of password borrowers surveyed say they would cancel the subscription to their favorite SVOD service if the monthly cost increased by just five dollars.
More than one-third (35%) of password borrowers say they don’t want to pay for a streaming video service, compared with a smaller share of pirated content watchers (18%) who say the same.
Some 40% of pirated content watchers surveyed say they do so to get quick access to content they want to watch, compared with 18% of password borrowers. Pirated content watchers are more critical of the value of entertainment offerings on streaming video, with half of this cohort saying the content available on SVOD isn’t worth the price (compared with 36% of consumers overall). Likewise, 46% of pirated content watchers (compared with just 27% of overall respondents) say they would prefer to pay to watch individual shows and movies versus having to pay for a monthly subscription.
Key take-aways
Deloitte recommends that video providers partner with security experts and cloud providers to protct content from theft and illegal sharing by using encryption, blockchain and AI-based monitoring technologies.
On the supply side, “streaming providers should continue to explore lower-cost ad-supported pricing tiers, and pay-per-view models to make content accessible and to expand their user base. Deloitte also reminds us of basic marketing concepts, that consumers “want…versions of content that they can’t find elsewhere – and they want it quickly.”
Further reading
Impatience and price motivate consumers to watch pirated content and borrow SVOD passwords. Press release. October 8, 2024. by Arun Perinkolam, Brooke Auxier, Akash Rawat. Tech, Media & Telecom practice. Deloitte.
2024 Digital Media Trends, 18th Edition. Report (landing page). Published October 2024. Deloitte.
Why it matters
The Deloitte study is instructive for online video providers. Consumers could respond positively to a more a-la-carte approach that allows consumers to watch selected programs or series without taking their full offering. But one might counterargue that video providers already do this – Apple, Amazon and others let consumers ‘rent’ movies that expire after a specified period of time. But SVOD consumers reported that this approach is too expensive.
Understanding why US consumers have used others’ streaming passwords or watched pirated content may help streaming providers tackle both problems, said Deloitte
