Customers give dismal scores to TV providers
By Brian Stelter, CNN
Note to Comcast and AT&T executives: you've got your work cut out for you.
Subscriber satisfaction with cable and satellite TV providers has slumped across the board, according to a new American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey of tens of thousands of people.
Of the eight providers studied, the worst performer is Time Warner Cable, the cable company that's merging with Comcast. The second worst is Comcast. They were in the same order last year — but this year, their scores are weaker.
Time Warner Cable has a score of 56 and Comcast has a score of 60. The industry average is 65.
The data was released in a report Tuesday, two days after AT&T announced a plan to acquire the biggest satellite provider in the country, DirecTV.
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TV blackout wars in a quiet period
By Brian Stelter, CNN
The TV industry has a holiday tradition straight out of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas:" End of year feuds that lead to channel blackouts for viewers.
But this year, everybody is playing nice. (It's almost as if the hearts of television executives have collectively grown three sizes.)
At issue are the carriage fees that distributors like Comcast and DirecTV (the biggest cable and satellite providers in the United States, respectively) have to pay to carry cable channels. They regularly have to re-negotiate fees with programmers like The Walt Disney Company, which controls ESPN and ABC Family, and Viacom, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.
Talks tend to get heated toward the end of the year - but evidently not this year. On Tuesday, Time Warner Cable and Viacom announced a deal a full week before the Jan. 1 deadline.
A number of other high-stakes negotiations have also been completed in recent weeks. An informal survey of industry representatives indicated that last-minute blackout threats were unlikely this New Year's Eve.
Distributors and programmers tend to keep their deals a secret - for competitive reasons and to cultivate a "no drama" perception in the industry.
Read more of Brian's article online here.
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Brian Stelter is the host of "Reliable Sources" and the senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide. Before he joined CNN in November 2013, Stelter was a media reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Top of the Morning."
Here's his biography. You can read his stories on this blog and at CNNMoney.com/Media/.
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