Netflix has more subscribers than any
single cable company, a number that is up 10 million from last year. While
major online players Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Sears Holdings Corp.
and even Facebook Inc. are part of the digital video
landscape, there is only one dominant retailer in the space—Netflix Inc.,
according to a report from the NPD Group.
The
market research firm says that Netflix claimed 61% of the
digital video market, which is composed of both downloads and streaming, in the
first two months of this year; that figure is based on consumer views of video
content. Its next closest competitor, Comcast Corp., had 8% of the
market.
There
was a three-way tie for third place, with Apple’s iTunes, Time Warner Cable and DirectTV each
having 4% of the market. Netflix accounts for approximately 30 percent of all United States web
traffic.
That’s
in line with Netflix’s evolution from a company that mailed
consumers DVDs of movies and TV shows to video streaming. Since introducing a streaming-only
subscription plan last November more than one-third—over 2.5
million—of the retailer’s 7.7 million new subscribers signed up for the pure
streaming plan, which means they do not receive discs in the mail, the company
said in January.
Those
results led Goldman Sachs to suggest that Netflix would end its DVD
distribution by 2020. “Going forward, we anticipate that management will be
most focused on acquiring digital content rights, and that digital will
represent 80%-90% of additions over the next few years,” says the Goldman Sachs
report.
Netflix
also wants to expand its digital reach. The retailer is building an integration
with Facebook, wrote Reed Hastings, the company’s CEO, in a January letter to
investors.“We’re working on an extensive Facebook integration, which will
further the notion of a personal Netflix account,” he wrote. “This evolution
from household to personal relationship will take several years, and there will
always be some households that only have one account.” He did not provide
further details.
NPD’s
research is based on online surveys of 10,618 consumers conducted in January
and February. When it comes to subscription streaming services in the United
States, Netflix is more popular with users
According
to a new infographic from social media monitoring company Mashwork, users in
the United States prefer Netflix over its subscription streaming
competitor Hulu Plus.
Mashwork monitored more than 10,000 tweets between June 28, 2010 and July 6, 2011 and found that 29% of users had a Netflix account while 20% had a Hulu Plus account.
The
real eye-opener, however, is the revelation that 51% of the tweets were from
users looking to cut their cable subscriptions in lieu of a streaming subscription service.We’re not surprised that Netflix has the upper
hand. The service has been around longer, is available on more devices and has
a larger library of television shows and movies. Still, Hulu continues to add
features, shows and compatible devices to its Hulu Plus lineup. With rumors
that Google and Yahoo are interested in acquiring the service
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