Global Netflix Subscribers By Subscription Type, Q1 2012-Q1 2014 [TABLE]

One key indicator of digital video audience metrics is subscriber numbers from Netflix and Hulu, both of which carry a mix of full-length movie and TV content, including a growing slate of original series. For Q1 2014, Netflix reported 34.38 million US streaming subscribers, a 23.2% increase from its prior-year figure of 27.91 million. Those increases were more than enough to offset modest declines in DVD subscribers, who now make up only a fraction of the company’s user base.

TV streaming leader Hulu announced in April 2014 that its Hulu Plus paid service had surpassed 6 million subscribers. This represented a 50% increase from the 4 million paid Hulu Plus subscribers the company had touted a year earlier. Hulu also announced that, as of the end of 2013, it was carrying 2,900 TV series, 86,000 episodes, and 68,000 hours of video from 488 content partners.

The reason Netflix and Hulu have realized such steep growth in their subscriber rolls at a time when growth in overall digital video viewers has moderated is simple: More people are gravitating toward full-length content as opposed to shorter clips. Read the rest at eMarketer.