Netflix squeaks past YouTube as top OTT provider

For the first time since 2011, the number of Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) viewers passed the number of viewers on Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)-owned YouTube, a survey of 1,000 U.S. Internet users by RBC Capital Markets revealed. Hulu Plus trailed well behind the top two services.

Of the respondents, 44 percent said they use SVOD service Netflix to watch movies and TV shows, while 43 percent use YouTube. It's a significant change from a similar RBC survey done in 2013, in which 37 percent of respondents chose Netflix and 40 percent YouTube.

Only 27 percent of respondents use Hulu Plus to watch content, according to the survey, and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) sat in fourth place with 22 percent saying they use its Prime Instant Video service.

Netflix also scored high in an area cable operators covet: Churn rate, according to the survey, is probably extremely low, as 69 percent of survey respondents using Netflix said they are "not at all likely" to cancel their subscriptions within the next three months, with just 6 percent saying they were very or extremely likely to cancel.

The report isn't likely to hurt Netflix's stock prices. Its huge nosedive of two years ago appears to be nearly forgotten as its share price on the Nasdaq reached a high of $458 last Thursday and was staying relatively stable at $438.50 in today's mid-morning trading.

For more:
- Investor's Business Daily has this article

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