J.D. Power released the findings from its 2023 U.S. Television Service Provider Satisfaction Study today, and one of the main takeaways was live TV customers are less likely to switch services than cable and satellite customers.
The interesting thing about this finding, is that it is so much easier to actually switch live TV streaming services. While cable and satellite services often require lengthy contracts and additional equipment, live TV services operate on a month to month basis, making it possible to switch services as often as every month.
In spite of being much easier to switch, J.D. Power’s 2023 satisfaction study found that the likelihood of live TV streaming customers switching services in the next year is just 12%. In comparison, the likelihood of cable and satellite customers switching is 21%.
According to the study, one of the main areas where live TV subscribers were most satisfied, compared to cable and satellite, was the cost. In spite of a seemingly never-ending stream of price increases, live TV streaming customer satisfaction with cost of service was 156 points higher (on a 1,000-point scale) than among cable and satellite customers.
“Although the cost of running a cable or satellite providing company is innately more expensive given the engineering and execution of such a service, it is hard to ignore the vast difference in cost between them and the live TV streaming companies,” said Carl Lepper, senior director of technology, media and telecom intelligence at J.D. Power.
Another area where live TV streaming customers seemed more satisfied was customer service. According to the study, only 30% of all streaming customers contacted customer service this year, and 84% felt it was somewhat or very easy to resolve their problem.
Overall, live TV streaming customers seemed to be generally far more satisfied across the board, with J.D. Power explaining how customer satisfaction for live TV streaming was higher across all seven factors in the study.
Ignoring cable and satellite, the satisfaction study also provided insight into how the various live TV streaming services are doing in comparison to each other. Most notably, YouTube TV topped the customer satisfaction rankings, replacing Fubo who was number one in the 2022 satisfaction study.
While YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV both improved on their previous year’s scores, Sling TV, DirecTV Stream, and Fubo saw their customer satisfaction score drop.
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