Netflix movie streaming takes back stage to TV

New data shows that users streaming TV shows on the video service have increased, while movie streaming has slowed.

July 12, 2012 7:23 PM PDT Follow @darakerr

(Credit: Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET)

Netflix users' taste for movies versus TV are changing. According to data released by Nielsen today, users who were most likely to stream movies dropped by 6 percent from last year, while those who preferred streaming TV rose by 8 percent.

Still, overall, the video streaming service's users like to watch movies -- 47 percent of users are currently most likely to stream movies while 19 percent will stream TV. The remaining users watch both movies and TV equally.

Netflix seems to be paying attention to these numbers as it launches its own original content TV shows. In February, it debuted a series similar to the "Sopranos" called "Lilyhammer," and it also announced a series called "Orange is the New Black" made by Jenji Kohan, who did "Weeds." The video streaming company also is working on "House of Cards" starring actor Kevin Spacey.

Netflix announced for the first time last week that it had reached a new milestone with its Watch Instantly service -- more than 1 billion hours were streamed in just one month. The record before this was 2 billion hours streamed in three months.