Earlier this week, Toronto-based Convergence Consulting Group released a report on the (future) split between watching TV on cable and online in the US. Streaming businesses like Netflix and Hulu have already seen an impressive rise in their revenues due to the increasing popularity of streaming TV, and this report now indicates that online viewing numbers will continue to grow.

These are the main things I learned from the Convergence report:

1. By the end of this year about 2m US viewers will have abandoned cable TV for the Web.
2. The report estimates that Netflix and Hulu will be generating a combined $800m from online-only subscriptions in 2013.
3. According to the report, 20% of US viewers are expected to view full TV episodes online by 2013.

Main learning point: even though only a small percentage of US viewers has ‘cut the cord’ with their cable companies, the likes of Netflix and Hulu are already doing pretty well out of the viewers that watch cable TV and download episodes online. It would be interesting to see similar figures for the UK; how well are streaming services such as BBC iPlayer, Channel 4’s 4od and Lovefilm doing in comparison to their US counterparts?

Related links for further learning:

http://www.convergenceonline.com/downloads/NewContent2011.pdf

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/05/streaming-tv-800-million-netflix-hulu/

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/online-video-streaming-continues-to-rise-664719