Mediavision reports nearly one million Nordic households not paying for Netflix

Netflix’s Danish drama The Nurse

Three million SVoD subscriptions in the Nordics are currently shared with other households. These households have access to a service without paying for it, according to Mediavision’s latest analysis of the Nordic TV and streaming market.

Marie Nilsson

Close to 20% of the 15 major SVoD services are now shared with a non-paying household. Netflix ranks as the most shared with close to a whopping million Nordic households stating they have access to the service without paying.

“It is a challenge for the streamers that so many subscriptions are shared,” Marie Nilsson, CEO at Mediavision, said.

She predicts that cheaper, partly ad-financed services entering the Nordics this year will reduce sharing. The so-called hybrid services are less expensive and could be an alternative.

“There are many indications that 2023 will offer a broader range in subscription options (in the Nordics), she said.

Mediavision also asked households that currently borrow subscriptions how they would respond if sharing was no longer possible. Just over half of the borrowed subscriptions would not be replaced with a paid one – the household would rather waive the service. However, Mediavision figures also show that many of those that borrow subscriptions pay for other services.

New Danish research from Wilke Institute on sub-sharing indicates that households under pressure from inflation and energy prices are tempted to share subscriptions.

A total of 47% of Danish households said before Christmas that they were influenced by price hikes which questioned all their subscriptions and 30% said that they had recently cancelled one or more subscriptions, with media-related subscriptions cancelled first.
Many Danish households already share a login with each other or friends according to Wilke.

“Thirty percent said they share logins, and it’s 50% among the under 40-year-olds. They are hardly hardened criminals. Many share because they can. In fact, 60% said that they would pay if sharing wasn’t an option,” business development director Daniel Ebert Pedersen, Wilke, explained to Flatpanels.dk

Streaming analyst Claus Bülow Christensen plans to closely watch if Netflix launches action against streaming “cheaters” in Denmark and other Nordic countries in 2023 and may offer group subscriptions as an incentive.

“Netflix has done this in other counties – it will be interesting to watch if this happens here too,” Christensen said.