The growth of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu is rapidly outpacing traditional cable
Myles Aronowitz/Netflix
The growth of US streaming services like Netflix and Hulu is outpacing traditional cable by a wide margin, according to research by The Convergence Consulting Group.
The US revenue for video streaming services like Netflix and Hulu grew by 29% to $5.1 billion in 2015. And while the US streaming industry in 2015 was a fraction of its cable, satellite, and telco TV counterpart (with revenues of $105 billion), that sector grew by just 3% in 2015.
2015 saw an explosion of new players in the industry, from NBC's all-comedy Seeso to Sony's PlayStation Vue, but Netflix and Hulu still make up 98% of the revenue for non-cable ("over-the-top") streaming video services - excluding Amazon. Convergence estimates this market share will decline to 91% in 2016.
And streaming isn't slowing down. Convergence predicts it will grow to $6.7 billion in 2016.
Here's a chart showing the growth of the streaming industry since 2013:
Convergence also saw a growth in "cord-cutters" and "cord-nevers," households who don't hold a traditional TV subscription and instead rely on things like streaming services for video. Analysts found 20.4% of households fell into this category at the end of 2015, up from 18.8% at the end of 2014. By the close of this year, Convergence predicts this will grow to 21.9%.
Note: 2013 and 2014 data includes Netflix and Hulu. 2015 data also includes Lifetime Movie Club, CBS All Access, Showtime, DirecTV's Yaveo (only 2015), Sling TV, Seeso, Tribeca Shortlist, PlayStation Vue, HBO Now, and Nickelodeon's Noggin. 2016 projected numbers include previous offerings plus the newly released Starz app. Data excludes Amazon.