• by Wayne Friedman , December 18, 2015

Over-the-top TV usage, which is already showing rapid growth, will slowly climb to more than 72% of U.S Internet users in three years from around 70% currently.

At the end of the year, eMarketer says 69.7% of U.S. Internet users -- 186.9 million -- will have streamed video content over the Internet using services like Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube. That number will rise to 199.6 million, or 72.1% of U.S. Internet users.

Slower growth will impact OTT services as their user bases near saturation, with the entire OTT marketplace growing 4.6% in the number of users, but only inching up 1.7% in 2019.

Looking at individual services, Netflix will grow 20.4% this year in the number of users, but will only rise 2.6% higher by 2019; Hulu will grow at a 16.2% rate in 2015 but will rise just 4.3% in three years; Amazon will climb 13.5% this year and rise 4.1% in 2019; and YouTube will climb 4.4% in 2015 but only inch up 1.6% in three years.

YouTube will maintain the highest OTT user penetration -- virtually the same level now versus three years from now -- 94.3% down to 94.1%. 

Netflix will increase its user penetration of the OTT market -- to 71.7% by 2019 up from 63.2% in 201; Amazon will get to 44.4% up from 36.0% and Hulu will improve to 41.2% from 33.1%