Netflix user profile 2022: Who is (and isn't) using a shared log-in

Introduction

Users of Netflix Inc.'s online video service who access the service via a shared log-in tended to have less household income and use fewer subscription video-on-demand services on average, compared to long-term subscribers, according to data from Kagan's U.S. online consumer survey, conducted in March 2022.

* Kagan's U.S. Consumer Insights survey showed that Netflix users who indicated sharing a log-in tended to be younger, less educated and have lower income than other subs.
* Recent subscribers who signed up within the past year were also younger, but also more diverse than long-term subscribers (more than a year) or shared log-in users.
* Shared log-in users tended to use fewer SVOD services compared to other users, while recent subs use the most.

Shared log-in users on Netflix tended to be younger, with Gen Z at 25% compared to 10% of long-term subscribers. Households without children represented a larger share of shared log-in users, at 28% for single and 46% for multiple adult households, compared to long-term subscribers, at 24% and 41, respectively. Shared log-in users also skewed more toward less educated and lower-income households, with 36% holding a high school diploma or less and 43% earning less than $50,000 per year, compared to 23% and 30% for long-term subscribers, respectively.

Another point of interest for Netflix was the new subscribers it is drawing in. Recent subscribers to Netflix also tended to be younger than long-term subs, with Gen Z at 28% and millennials at 36% of subscribers surveyed who indicated they established a subscription in the past 12 months. Recent subscribers were also more diverse, with white respondents only making up 48%, compared to 64% of long-term subscribers. Households of single adults, both with and without children, represented larger shares of recent subscribers, at 38% and 17%, respectively, compared to 24% and 7% of long-term subscribers.

Recent subscribers also had a larger share of respondents with a high school diploma or less at 30% compared to 23% of long-term subscribers. When asked where they live, most recent subscribers to Netflix live in urban metro areas at 42% or suburban towns at 44%. Similar to shared log-in users, recent subscribers were also more likely to live in households earning less than $50,000, at 46%, compared to long-term subscribers.

Including Netflix, total service users surveyed used an average of five SVOD services. New subscribers used more at 6.7 services, while those who indicated they receive Netflix as a subscriber perk to another service, including select wireless plans, used the fewest, at 3.9. Those who used a shared log-in were just a little higher with an average of 4.1 services used in the household.

Among all Netflix users surveyed, Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video, Walt Disney Co.'s Hulu and Disney+ were the most likely to be used at 66%, 53% and 47%, respectively. These services were also the most used among recent subscribers, long-term subscribers and shared log-in users. However, long-term subscribers were the most likely to use Prime Video at 70%. Netflix users who receive the service as a subscriber perk were the least likely of the Netflix user segments to indicate using several of these popular SVOD services, with Hulu at 43%, Disney+ at 27% and AT&T Inc.'s HBO Max at 25%.

Recent subscribers to Netflix were the most likely to indicate they use a traditional multichannel service in their household at 74%, while those who share a log-in were the least likely at 51%. Since recent subscribers were more likely to live in households with children they might be seeking out content from multiple sources to entertain the whole family. Those who use a shared log-in for Netflix could just be cost conscious, since they were also the least likely to have a traditional multichannel subscription and were the most likely to live in lower-income households, compared to the other Netflix user groups.

Most shared log-in users (84%) frequently stream video from SVOD services (at least once per week) although are less likely than recent and long-term subscribers at 90% and 91%, respectively. Shared log-in users were much less likely to download content from SVOD services, with 74% indicating they never download, compared to only 27% of recent subscribers.

^{Data presented in this article and the associated Excel banner file was collected from Kagan's U.S. Consumer Insights survey conducted in March 2022. The surveys included 2,519 internet adults with a margin of error of +/- 1.9 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Gen Z are adults ages 18-24; millennials, 25-41; Gen X, 42-56; boomers/seniors 57+.}

^{Consumer Insights is a regular feature from Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence's TMT offering, providing exclusive research and commentary.}

^{This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.}