Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and MLB.tv are winning the cord-cutting wars, but HBO is making a move as viewers choose from a bonanza of niche streaming services.

The top four places are unchanged in a ranking of subscription video services delivered over broadband, according to the OTT Video Market Tracker Top 10, from research firm Parks Associates.



That means new and fledgling streaming video services will have to try harder to build and maintain a subscriber base, says Brett Sappington, senior research director for the Addison, Tex. research firm.

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"You have three major over-the-top video services and then you have everyone else," Sappington said. "So everyone else is trying to learn to play as, if not second fiddle, certainly a complementary option to the others."

HBO Now moved up two spots to No. 5, while Starz, which launched in April 2016, and YouTube Red, made its debut on the chart. Showtime and CBS All Access both moved up one spot.

1. Netflix

2. Amazon Video (Amazon Prime)

3. Hulu (SVOD)

4. MLB.TV

5. HBO Now

6. Starz

7. YouTube Red

8. Showtime

9. CBS All Access

10. Sling TV



Live TV service Sling TV dropped from No. 6 to No. 10, while the WWE Network and CrunchyRoll dropped from the chart, which ranks the so-called over-the-top (OTT) video — delivered over wired and wireless broadband Internet — by the number of paid subscribers.

This shuffling speaks to the growing competition in OTT video. There are more than 200 subscription video services now — 202 as of the third quarter of 2017, according to Parks Associates — with 60 new services introduced in 2016 and so far in 2017.

And U.S. broadband households are increasingly opting to subscribe to two or more services, with 34% of them having two or more subscriptions in 2016, up from 23% in 2015.

It's not just cord cutters driving OTT growth, Sappington says. More than half of U.S. broadband homes subscribe to traditional pay TV and one or more OTT services, he says.

"Consumers typically choose a primary service or services," Sappington said. "They will have pay TV or pay TV and Netflix, or pay tv and Hulu. They have one of the major services and then everything kind of supplements that. Even HBO as popular as it is, that typically supplements a pay TV service or Netflix or Amazon or something like that."

More:Five steps to cutting your expensive cable TV bill

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.