According to Parks Associates, 12% of US broadband households use a live streaming platform like Facebook Live or Periscope in the third quarter. The firm found that the profile for live streamers is generally younger, with 19% of consumers ages 18-24 engaging in live streaming activity. That said, the demographic for the live streaming of TV shows and sports skews older, indicating that older viewers might be using these solutions to access illegal streams of content.

In all 8% of broadband households have used live streaming apps to watch TV shows, while 7% have used live streaming apps to watch sports Parks Associates found. It added that some sports franchises and leagues are legitimately live-streaming their content, but much of the produced content on these live streaming platforms remains unsanctioned.

The research comes from Parks Associates' report Pay TV, Passwords and Piracy, which also found that 18% of ‘cord-nevers’ indicate they use the credentials of someone outside their household to access an online video service. Among pay-TV subscribers, only 7% indicate they use IDs and passwords for video services from people who do not live in their household. Meanwhile, 14% of cord-cutters use others' credentials for online video services, double the rate of use by pay-TV subscribers.

"Over one-third of households live-streaming TV shows or sports indicate the programming was available, but they opted for live-streaming because they did not want to pay for access,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of research, Parks Associates. “Over one-quarter stated that they accessed the content via live streaming because the price of the programming was too high. While these figures ultimately represent less than 5% of US broadband households, they are a significant portion of those watching app-based live streams."

The report also said that 45% of US broadband households are very concerned about downloading a virus or malware when downloading or streaming video.