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Phoenix666 writes:

As Netflix continues to add more content to its streaming service—and millions more paying subscribers each quarter—the company's viewing audience is growing fast enough to draw subjective comparisons to major American TV networks. On Thursday, an investment bank's analysts crunched the numbers and came to a substantial conclusion: Netflix will surpass the top networks' reported Nielsen viewer numbers by next year.

FBR Capital Markets' analysts made the claim while commenting on Netflix's recent seven-to-one stock split, which will go into effect on July 14. FBR believes the streaming company's continuing stock price surge isn't over yet. The analysts, Chase White and Barton Crockett, crunched Netflix's Q1 2015 numbers to estimate a little over two hours of streaming per American customer; in Nielsen terms, that amounts to the service's total, 24-hour content rating of 2.6, which is neck-and-neck with American broadcasters ABC and NBC.

"However, Netflix is growing its ratings at a 40 percent-plus compound annual growth rate; the broadcasters are, on average, declining," the FBR analysts wrote. "At this pace, in a year, Netflix will have a larger 24-hour audience than all broadcast networks."

If you had an inkling last year that you should have bought Netflix stock, you were right...