Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) accounts for more than 60 percent of all movies streamed or downloaded on the Internet in January, nearly eight times more than its nearest competitor, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA).
NPD Group's VideoWatch Digital tracking service said the digital movie distributor's share of movie units, downloaded or streamed, reached 61 percent, with Comcast at 8 percent and a three-way tie for third place between DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV), Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC), and Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) at four percent.
NPD said 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," Russ Crupnick, Entertainment Industry Analyst for NPD said. "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."
Netflix also ranked as consumers' best "overall shopping experience" and "value for price pad," in NPD's survey.
Consumers were drawn to EST services like iTunes because they have the most "current releases available."
NPD's data is based on online surveys of U.S. consumers age 13 and older conducted between January and the third week of February 2011. The final reporting is based on 10,618 completed surveys.
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