• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, February 4, 2015

Over-the-top viewing is poised to have a big year, thanks to fast growth in the streaming device market. The percentage of U.S. homes with connected devices that enable streaming of TV shows and video should reach 25% by year end, up from 16% of homes a year ago, according to the latest research from NPD Group.

After tabulating holiday purchases, the research firm predicted a quick rise in streaming usage in the next few years. The number of homes with streaming media devices is on pace to reach 33% in 2016, and 40% by 2017. That’s a little less than 40 million homes by 2017.

In addition to holiday buying driving the market, the rollout of new devices has also fueled the uptick, says NPD. The most popular new devices are Amazon’s Fire TV and Google’s Chromecast, along with two veterans in the over-the-top business, Apple TV and Roku.

The Google Chromecast has been on the market for more than a year, and the company said that the frequency of usage per device has grown by 60% since the product rolled out. Google says the Chromecast was the top selling streaming device in the U.S. in 2014.

In order for this boost in device sales to have the most impact on the media market, service providers will need to be able to handle the increased usage of streaming video without any quality-of-service problems.

Look for content providers to beef up  digital video offerings even more to capitalize on this hunger for more digital content. NPD said that Netflix remains the most popular service on streaming media devices, but it is also driving the growth, in part because Netflix is now creating content as well.