Netflix’s hold on the online video market, both downloaded or streamed, reached 61 percent from January of this year to last month while Comcast came in a distant second at 8 percent.
The market research, which was conducted by The NPD Group, said there was a three-way tie for third between DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Apple at 4 percent.
Based on information from NPD’s VideoWatch Digital tracking service, digital video now makes up one quarter of all home video volume.
“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,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. “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.”
NPD also compared consumer-reported satisfaction with four modes of digital-video acquisition: electronic sell-through (EST), Internet VOD (iVOD), cable VOD, and subscription streaming.
The research found that consumers recognized that EST services like iTunes have the most “current releases available,” while Netflix streaming gets credit from customers for providing the best “overall shopping experience” and “value for price paid.”