J.D. Power: Video Subs Less Pleased with Prices

Residential TV service customers are notably less satisfied with the cost of service, compared with 2009, according to the J.D. Power and Associates (www.jdpower.com) 2010 U.S. Residential Television Service Satisfaction Study.Customer satisfaction with the cost of TV service averages 541 on a 1,000-point scale in 2010, down 14 points from 555 in 2009. Customers of traditional cable providers are particularly dissatisfied with their cost of service. Satisfaction with fairness of prices paid among cable customers is 22 percent lower than among customers of telephone company providers (such as AT&T and Verizon) and 18 percent lower than among customers of satellite providers (such as DirecTV and DISH).The study measures customer satisfaction with cable, satellite and IPTV video providers in four regional segments: North Central, East, West and South. In each segment, five factors are measured to determine overall customer satisfaction: performance and reliability: customer service, cost of service, billing, and offerings and promotions.For a third consecutive year, AT&T U-verse ranks highest in the West (with an index score of 698) and South (732) regions. AT&T U-verse also ranks highest in the North Central region (728). In the East region, Verizon FiOS ranks highest for a third consecutive year with a score of 679.