The use of online streaming services was already burgeoning well before most of the world started spending so much time at home. The current explosion in the demand for video and music streaming services is cause for celebration in the industry, but it has a dark side. Account fraud, sharing and takeover, enabled by password sharing and identity theft, is emerging as a serious business threat to over-the-top (OTT) and pay-TV companies.
According to Parks Associates, $9.1 billion was lost in revenues due to account sharing and data piracy in 2019 alone, with a predicted nearly $12.5 billion to be lost by 2024. That makes quite a case for curtailing both.