‘One in three users share OTT passwords’

In a price-sensitive market like India, sharing OTT passwords has become a norm. The platforms also aren’t in any hurry to stop this

- Niharika Lal

I broke up with my partner, can I still use his OTT subscription?” actor Vijay Verma was asked on a dating show. He suggested, “Maybe get a new one.” Sharing an OTT password has become the digital era’s intimate custom. “Love is sharing a password,” read a 2017 tweet from Netflix’s official Twitter handle. The tweet didn’t age well at all as the company this year announced that it is testing a feature that could warn people against using others’ accounts.

As per a study, the platform revealed this year that about 100 million households worldwide and 30 million in the US and Canada alone access content using someone else’s login credentials. However, experts say that the problem must be much bigger in India. Oho Gujarati, an OTT platform dedicated to Gujarati content, found that 79 persons were watching its content from the same account. However, even after the incident, the platform didn’t take any iron-fisted approach but instead opted to log out those users automatically so that they are reminded that it is not allowed.

Experts say that India is a price-sensitive market and password sharing of an OTT subscription is seen as a right. Hence, it is challenging to stop the usage.

 ‘CLAMPDOWN IS NOT GOING TO WORK IN INDIA’