Netflix Rules the Internet Video Market by a Huge Amount
posted Sunday Mar 27, 2011 by Nicholas DiMeo
We all know that digital video is becoming increasingly popular, which means that the market is becoming more competitive and expanding rapidly. So far, Netflix keeps doing things right in their world and continues to reign supreme among the masses. This week, research study and numbers wizards NPD Group released a report that says 61 percent of all streaming video content online is coming from Netflix, at least legally. Geez, good luck with your new project Amazon! Netflix just seems to be everywhere from online to Xboxs to set-tops.
NPD reported that the next closest competition was Comcast, which held 8 percent of the market with its digital movie united and coming in at 4 percent was Time Warner, Apple and DirecTV. NPD collected its data from Jan to Feb of 2011 with 10,618 United States Internet users.
Oddly enough, NPD also gave credit to the average consumer, stating that they know the difference between downloaded movies, Internet video on demand, cable video on demand and streaming services. They also understand the difference between services like iTunes, that get the current releases, and Netflix, that gets releases a bit later but gives you overall value for the product you're paying for.
For more on this, hit the break.
NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said,
Sales of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs still drive most home-video revenue, but VOD and other digital options are now beginning to make inroads with consumers. Overwhelmingly digital movie buyers do not believe physical discs are out of fashion, but their digital transactions were motivated by the immediate access and ease of acquisition provided by streaming and downloading digital video files.
That's exactly what everyone is trying to do. Netflix owns the market right now, being anywhere and everywhere you want but can't get you the most current releases. They have every device connected to their service. iTunes is extremely limited in device availability but can get you up to date stuff. Same with Hulu Plus. Amazon's Prime Instant Video is trying to hit both pieces of the pie at once but is still lacking from big name backing and an expanded library and selection. They do claim that 200 devices are connected to their service, but we've yet to see them hit the market.
61 percent is a huge nut to crack and if companies like Hulu and iTunes can't even get into double digits, Amazon's got a big project in front of them.
