AT&T and DirecTV are kings of customer satisfaction for television service.
That’s the finding from the latest J.D. Power and Associates study measuring customer satisfaction with cable, satellite and IPTV providers in four U.S. regions. An overall score for each company was given based on cost of service; billing; performance and reliability; offerings and promotions; customer service; and programming.
While AT&T’s customer-satisfaction numbers for wireless service have struggled over the past few years, not so when it comes to TV. For the fourth consecutive year, the carrier’s U-verse TV ranked highest in the West and South. It took the crown in the North for the second straight year. In the East, DirecTV was top of the heap.
For its U.S. Residential Television Service Satisfaction Study, J.D. Power surveyed nearly 24,000 TV customers nationwide.
Other findings of note:
- While many have speculated that premium channels like HBO are in trouble, the percentage of cable households subscribing to premium channels is up slightly over the past year. The doomsdayers, however, point to the 5-percentage-point decline in subscribership among satellite viewers.
- More residential customers have a DVR – subscriptions to this service among cable customers are up from 38 percent last year to 45 percent this year. It’s even higher – 64 percent – among satellite owners. That’s generating additional revenues for TV providers.
- More people are watching video-on-demand. VOD viewership among cable customers is up from 35 percent in 2010 to 39 percent in 2011. Satellite VOD watching is also up.
