Less Than Half The Netflix Viewers We Polled Had Their Own Accounts

According to a totally, absolutely unscientific survey of BuzzFeed News readers, it’s about as likely that they’re using a friend or parent’s account to stream Orange Is the New Black as their own.

Netflix

Last week, in its second-quarter earnings report, Netflix announced that it had reached 65.6 million subscribers worldwide. More than 42 million of those viewers are in the U.S., meaning that there's more than one Netflix subscription for every three households in the country.

But how many more could it have? Just because someone is watching Orange Is the New Black or House of Cards doesn't mean that they're paying $8 a month to do it — the company makes it easy to sign multiple people in to a single account. According to some analysts, streaming companies that allow account sharing might be leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table.

BuzzFeed News asked readers about their sharing habits, and nearly 75,000 people voted. Bear in mind that this poll was in no way scientific. Take it for what it is: a large sampling of BuzzFeed readers who self-reported their habits in a BuzzFeed News poll designed to be entertaining.

The largest number of respondents were, in fact, using their own accounts.

BuzzFeed

According to the poll, more than 40% of the respondents — about 31,000 people — are shelling out for their own account, and almost a third are at least keeping things in the family. Only around 10% are using the account information of a friend.

These top three results were consistent with results for HBO Go and Hulu, although poll response rates were far lower for those other streaming services.

---

View Entire List ›

Source