Ukrainian media service Megogo currently sees no point in radically combating password sharing among users. The company believes that the negative effects of such restrictions will exceed the potential profit, and the scale of the phenomenon in Ukraine is much smaller than in global streaming services.
Ukrainian media service Megogo currently sees no point in radically combating password sharing among users. The company believes that the negative effects of such restrictions will exceed the potential profit, and the scale of the phenomenon in Ukraine is much smaller than in global streaming services.
This was stated by Megogo Chief Product Officer Yegor Yarotsky in the first episode of the «Signal and Noise» podcast from the Mezha publication. According to him, the platform constantly analyzes data on the use of different IP addresses and devices, but does not consider the ban on account sharing as a driver of business growth.
«We analyze, we see all the numbers… and so far we do not consider this either a problem or a potential for growth in the core business,» Yarotsky noted.
In his opinion, if the company starts «harassing» users, it will provoke a wave of negativity that is not worth the value received.
Instead of restricting regular viewers, Megogo has focused on eliminating the shadow market for reselling access. The company is actively fighting Telegram channels and ads on marketplaces through which attackers sell access to other people’s accounts at a low price. The developers are discovering entire networks with thousands of «clients», after which they permanently block such accounts.
Previously, Megogo estimated that the pirated content market in Ukraine is 20 times larger than the legal one in terms of traffic, which is critically hampering the development of streaming platforms. Megogo has a separate department to combat piracy and spends about UAH 4.5 million per year on this area.
The platform also already has technical limits: up to three simultaneous broadcasts in total and up to two for sporting events.
«On average, the household we work with consists of three people. For example, a husband at the front with a mobile phone and a wife at home watching the national team game. If we cut the limits, it will be a problem, and we feel it. Therefore, two streams are enough today,» the top manager explained.
As a reminder, streaming service Netflix previously embraced password sharing as a growth mechanism. However, in 2023–2024, it introduced a fee for additional users outside the same household. This allowed the service to attract millions of new subscribers, after which Disney+ and Max (HBO) began implementing similar measures.
