Netflix zoomed past Apple in 2011 to become the nations leading supplier of movies streamed over the Internet, according to revenue data IHS released on Friday.our editor recommendsTurner Broadcasting Chief Executive Officer Sees Only Minor Netflix Effect on Kids TV Ratings Netflix, Relativity Sued Over ‘Atlas Shrugged’ Distribution DealApple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to Forgo $75 Million in Dividend PaymentsPHOTOS: Netflixs 10 Most Rented Movies of All TimeLast year, US revenue generated by subscription video on demand soared 10,000 percent to $454 million, according to IHS, mostly due to Netflix and its decision to partially split its DVD and online streaming services.
While Netflix claimed just 1 percent of the total online movie business in 2010, it leapt to 44 percent last year.
Apple, which leads the "transactional" business as opposed to subscription, saw its revenue share fall from 61 percent in 2010 to 32 percent last year.
IHS says Netflix is so dominant in the SVOD category that its nearest competitor, Hulu, is just 10 percent its size.
The transactional side of the online movie business — Apple iTunes and its competitors — was up 75 percent to $273 million.
Electronic sell through, which IHS notes is more profitable for the studios than are the online rental models, grew by just 2.4 percent last year to $236 million.
The online movie business on whole more than doubled to $992 million last year, and IHS expects it to double again this year.
IHS says "the big growth story" of 2011, though, was Walmarts Vudu, which captured 8.2 percent of the transactional market, up from 2.8 percent the year prior.
Claire Cain is a business journalist based in Brisbane, Australia. Claire has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Claire spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
