By : Chris Tribbey | Posted: 07 Oct 2009
ctribbey@questex.com

Americans are more satisfied this year with their TV service providers compared to 2008, but that doesn’t mean they’re loyal to one service or another, according to a new report from J.D. Power and Associates.

On a 1,000-point scale, overall satisfaction with residential TV service increased 23 points to 632, according to the 2009 U.S. Residential Television Service Satisfaction Study. The 2008 score of 609 was a five-year low, according to the research firm. The report surveyed more than 28,000 households.

“In the wake of receding satisfaction scores in 2008, improvements in product performance and the service surrounding it this year suggest that providers are eager to better position themselves to retain and grow their customer bases,” said Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications at J.D. Power and Associates. “For instance, average time on hold required to resolve a customer’s most recent problem has declined 13% from 2008 to 9 minutes, 5 seconds this year. Additionally, fewer customers are experiencing outages, with 11% reporting an outage in 2009, compared with 15% in 2008.”

Seventy-eight percent of satellite customers said they are likely to recommend the service to others, up 6% from 2008. That’s compared to only 60% of cable customers who said they would recommend their service to others, up 5% from 2008.

“Despite an improvement in recommendation rates, there isn’t a corresponding increase in loyalty,” Perazzini said. “In fact the percentage of cable customers affirming their loyalty to their provider has declined to 25% in 2009 from 27% in 2008.”

The number of cable customers who subscribe to added premium channels is down to 29% from 32% in 2008. VOD and PPV customers were also down 2% each year-over-year, with 33% saying they use VOD and 16% reporting they use PPV.

“It appears the economy has had an impact on the use of additional video services in 2009,” Perazzini said. “However, while there has been some belt-tightening regarding most additional services, DVR usage has risen 22 percentage points to 40% this year as more households utilize this tool to shift the view time for their preferred free programming.”

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