FiOS stays high on consumer satisfaction index as Comcast, TWC, Charter languish at the bottom

Not one player in the pay TV services space managed to reach the national average for customer satisfaction in the most recently quarterly results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Verizon (NYSE: VZ) FiOS continued to hold the top spot but it fell 1 percent to a 72 percent satisfaction rating--6 percentage points higher than the industry average of 66 percent but 3.6 points lower than the national average of 75.6 percent. DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV), up 1 percent over the year, led satellite with a 69 percent score and Cox Communications, unchanged at 67 percent, led cable.

The ACSI is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of products and services and its results continue to reveal that customers are not all that delighted with their pay TV services. While service providers frequently tout the value of bundled services--generally voice, video and data, although telcos can add in wireless--the report suggested that this becomes a double-edged sword when early pricing packages run out.

"Subscribers with bundled services are becoming less satisfied and more concerned about price," according to Claes Fornell, ACSI founder. "Higher fees are significantly dampening customer satisfaction, more so than in other industries," the report said.

Overall, cable did not fare well in the results. Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) (down 3 percent), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) (down 3 percent) and Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) (down 2 percent) all tied in last place with scores of 59. AT&T (NYSE: T) U-verse (68 percent) and Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) (67 percent) both fell 6 percentage points.

For more:
- see this news release
- and the index

Special Report: TIA 2011 Preview: Wireline's rising trends

Related articles:
Customer service vexes traditional cable as competing technologies crowd in
Customer satisfaction on the rise for cable services