Convergent playback of buffered content to real-time content play

Convergent playback of buffered content to real-time content play. A content viewing system is provided including a content player operative to receive a content stream from a content source, a content viewer operative to receive the content from the content player, and a buffer into which the content player may store the received content and from which the player may provide the stored content to the content viewer, where the content player is operative to buffer the content stream to the buffer responsive to a request to pause play of the content stream, and retrieve the content from the buffer for playback of the buffered content stream responsive to a request to resume play of the content stream, thereby emptying the buffer, where the buffer is emptied at a faster rate than the rate at which the content stream is buffered, and the rate at which the buffer is emptied varies.