• by Wayne Friedman , March 21, 2013

Bright House Networks and Dish Network get top honors when it comes to a consumer survey -- but it's not all good news for any top TV multichannel company.

A survey by the Waban, Mass.-based Temkin Group says that overall, the TV distributor industry was the lowest among 19 industries it surveyed.

"Bad customer experience is an ongoing epidemic in the TV services sector," states Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group. "Even the best firm in the industry is rated in the bottom third of all companies."

Temkin says Bright House Networks and Dish Network were tied for 166th out of all 246 companies in the ratings across industries -- lower-rated than many companies in the parcel delivery service, grocery and fast -food industries. The two companies earned "okay" ratings.

At the opposite end of TV distributors, Temkin rates Time Warner Cable (244th place, tied with Days Inn ) and Charter Communications (239th place) with the lowest marks.

The ratings looked 10 TV multichannel distributors -- AT&T (233rd place), Bright House Networks, Cablevision (182nd place, Charter Communications, Comcast (222nd), Cox Communications (232nd place), DirecTV (191st place), Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon (222nd place).

The good news for the industry: Dish Network was the highest-rated in the "functional" component; Cablevision is highest-rated in the "accessible" category, and Bright House Networks is highest-rated in the "emotional" component.

The study was based on 10,000 U.S. consumers evaluating three areas of customer experience: functional (can customers do what they want to do); accessible (how easy it is to work with the company); and emotional (how consumers feel about their interactions). Consumers rate the three components of their experience -- functional, accessible, and emotional -- on a 7-point scale.

"Watching TV photo from Shutterstock"

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