Netflix "Watch Instantly" Dominates On-TV Streaming Video

Netflix "Watch Instantly" is the dominant application for U.S. household Web-to-TV video, NPD says. Of people viewing online video on the TV, 40 percent use their connected TVs to stream video from Netflix, 12 percent access HuluPlus, and four percent connect to Vudu. 

Over the last year, the number of consumers reporting that the TV is their primary screen for viewing paid and free video streamed from the Web has risen from 33 percent to 45 percent,  according to The NPD Group. 

During the same period, consumers who used a PC as the primary screen for viewing over-the-top (OTT) streamed-video content declined from 48 percent to 31 percent. 

This shift not only reflects a strong consumer preference for watching TV and movies on big screen TVs, but also coincides with the rapid adoption of Internet-connected TVs, NPD argues. Up to this point, it has more commonly been a game console that has served as the gateway to watching streamed video on a TV set.