Exactly what is this report? ACSI’s annual report on information services, including subscription TV, released today, reveals satellite TV players DIRECTV and DISH Network, as well as fiber TV services from Verizon and AT&T, outperform cable companies rated that Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable. The companies are rated on a 100-point scale. Other industries rated in the Information Sector report are wireless telephone service, fixed-line telephone (including cable companies that sell or bundle telecom services), cell phone manufacturers, and computer software. More than 8,000 customer respondents were collected in the first quarter of 2011 to produce the Index report. ACSI was founded at the University of Michigan and is a proven indicator of consumer spending and satisfaction as measured by ACSI has been linked to stock price performance. Some of the report's results include...
- Customer satisfaction with subscription TV service is unchanged at an ACSI score of 66, just one year after surging 5 percent to an all-time high
- Verizon’s fiber optic service, FiOS, maintains the number one spot for subscription TV service with a score of 72. Verizon has nearly doubled its number of subscribers over the past two years
- AT&T’s U-verse, ranked second in last year’s survey, drops 6 percent to a score of 68 just behind DIRECTV (+2 percent to 69). Satellite provider DISH Network falls 6 percent to 67 one year after it had surged ahead of its satellite rival
- Satisfaction with all cable providers fell. The lone exception was Cox, which held steady at 67. But the others fell well behind. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Charter are in a three way tie at the bottom with a miserable score of 59
- As bundling promotions begin to sunset, subscribers with bundled services are becoming less satisfied and more concerned about price
- The convergence in the video market is also happening in fixed-line telephone service. The industry falls 3 percent to an ACSI score of 73