Cable, satellite customer satisfaction up, but still weak

Consumer satisfaction with cable and satellite TV providers is at its highest since ratings began, but the industry ranked second to last among 18, and the nation's largest cable operator pulled its lowest rating ever in a widely watched annual customer service survey being released Tuesday. Only airlines flew lower than cable and satellite TV, which tied with newspapers in the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, which began tracking the industry in 2001. Cable and satellite TV companies' average rating rose 3.2 percent from a year ago to a score of 64 for 2008. Comcast, whose service so infuriated a Virginia grandmother she took a hammer to a local Comcast office, tied with struggling Charter Communications for last place among cable and satellite firms. Topping the industry were smaller operators - in a category called "all others" that included Cablevision Systems Corp. and RCN Corp. - with a grade of 69 out of a perfect 100. Satellite TV providers DirecTV Group Inc. and Dish Network Corp. came in second and third with scores of 68 and 65, respectively.
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