A new study by Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney reinforced Netflix’s dominance of online video. The online check had Netflix representing 24.5 percent of online video, ahead of Hulu (22.5 percent) and just short of Facebook (27.1 percent). iTunes was the top pay-per-show provider but was well short in use at just 9.8 percent of those asked online.
YouTube was appropriately the dominant video provider at 69.2 percent. Amazon’s Instant Video service was comparatively close to iTunes at 7.3 percent.
The study wasn’t completely comprehensive but, to Mahaney, suggested a very large potential audience if its movie rental service gained traction. Mahaney wasn’t confident that Google could do so given its general inexperience in media deals. Although not explicitly mentioned, Google is widely known to have blown its music service deal and forced users to upload their own music rather than just matching it, as with iTunes Match.
Netflix’ share in the study was supported by NPD data and reflected its ubiquity. Along with web viewing, it can play on iOS devices, some Android phones, and many Blu-ray players, some TVs, all current-generation game consoles, and even the Apple TV. Apple’s desire to control all of the experience has left it supporting the Apple TV, iTunes apps, and iOS devices
