Among the 57 percent of U.S. broadband households that have an over-the-top video subscription like Hulu, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Prime Instant Video or Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), 11 percent are using shared accounts provided by people outside the home, a new Parks Associates study says. But the question remains as to whether account sharing is a real problem, or an opportunity for SVOD (subscription video on demand) providers.

Parks portrayed account sharing in its release as a "lingering challenge," and indeed, most if not all SVOD services limit the number of devices that can stream content simultaneously. Netflix's "Standard" account, for example, allows only two devices to use the service at the same time, while its "Premium" account ups that to four. Amazon permits subscribers to stream "up to two titles at the same time using the same Amazon.com account" but when streaming the same title, users can only see it on one device at a time.

From the article "Sharing Netflix, other SVOD accounts is prevalent among OTT households--but how much it matters is relative" by Samantha Bookman.

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