by Paul Carton | August 10, 2009 11:24 am
Recent ChangeWave consumer surveys have revealed a shift occurring away from traditional TV viewing towards new types of online services and entertainment — a trend with worrisome long term implications for traditional TV service providers.
But focusing on the short term, a recent ChangeWave survey of 2,922 U.S. and Canadian consumers identified winners and losers in the current market share battle among TV service providers.
According to our latest survey, Cable (65%) still owns the bulk of the TV market, even though it’s been slowly ticking downward for much of the past 2+ years. We note, however, that they have gained 2-pts since our previous survey in March.
At the same time, Satellite providers (25%; down 1-pt) have remained relatively flat, even as the core growth story over the past two years has shifted to the fiber-optic TV service providers (11%). But what does this mean at the individual provider level?
Comcast (CMCSA[1]) (23%; down 1-pt) is still the market share leader, but has been gradually sliding for the past year. Time Warner (TWX[2]) (11%; up 1-pt) remains a distant second — still stuck at the same level of a year ago.
DirecTV (DTV[3]) (13%; unchanged) continues to hold the market share advantage over DISH Network (DISH[4]) (9%) — which dropped 1-pt to its lowest level ever in a ChangeWave survey.
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Verizon (VZ[5]) FiOS (5%) and AT&T (T[6]) U-verse (3%) have been gaining share steadily — albeit slowly — since they rolled out their fiber services.
Importantly, Fiber TV providers also boast a big lead when it comes to customer satisfaction levels — with an overall 38% Very Satisfied rating, followed by Satellite subscribers (27% Very Satisfied) — both which remain far happier with their TV service than Cable subscribers (13% Very Satisfied).
The difference is even more evident at the company level, where Verizon continues to have the most satisfied customers (47% Very Satisfied), followed by AT&T’s U-verse service (39%) and then DIRECTV (34%).
The cable companies rank at the bottom in terms of customer satisfaction — with Time Warner (11%) and Comcast (11%) tied for dead last.
Looking ahead, we asked respondents if they planned to switch TV service providers in the next six months, and only 12% report they’ll be switching — down 2-pts from March.
Among this group, Price (50%) is the top reason respondents plan to switch, while Bundling of Services (10%) continues to be of lesser importance.
NEXT: So Which Type of TV Provider are Switchers Moving To?
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More than one-in-two (54%) switchers say they’ll choose a fiber-optic service — which is an 8-pt increase since our previous survey just three months ago.
Verizon FiOS TV (28%; unchanged) remains the top provider that switchers plan to move to in the next six months. But AT&T’s U-verse service (23%) has jumped a big 7-pts since our March survey and is currently showing the most momentum among providers.
Note that DirecTV (20%; down 5-pts) maintains a two-to-one market share advantage over DISH Network (10%; down 2-pts) — but both are hitting new lows. Cable providers bring up the rear — with just 4% of switchers saying they’ll sign up with Comcast (up 1-pt) and 1% for Time Warner.
Thus while cable and satellite providers still lead in terms of current share, their problems continue to grow.
In comparison, fiber-optic companies are excellently positioned to be the biggest winners in terms of future market share growth.
Andy Golub co-wrote this article.
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