Netflix's share of U.S. online movie revenue rose dramatically to 44 percent in 2011, up from less than 1 percent in 2010, according to a new IHS Screen Digest Broadband Media Market Insight . Two factors contributed to this surge: Netflix's decision to ; and a big increase in the number of people streaming video to their TVs and mobile devices.

While Apple's online movie business has shown strong revenue growth in recent years, its share of the total market declined to 32.3 percent last year from 60.8 percent in 2010, IHS says.

"2011 marked a sea change in the online movies business that saw the balance of consumer spending shift from a DVD-like transactional model to a more TV-like subscription approach," said Dan Cryan, research director for digital media at HIS, in a statement.

Apple and compete for your entertainment dollar, but each has a different approach to online viewing. Netflix offers tens of thousands of movies and TV show episodes, mostly older titles, for a set monthly fee. Apple's iTunes, on the other hand, charges a separate fee for individual movies and shows.

Netflix dominates the subscription streaming market, IHS says. Second-place Hulu is less than 10 percent of Netflix's size.