• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
TechComcast

Why Everyone Hates Their Cable Company Even More This Year

By
Aaron Pressman
Aaron Pressman
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Aaron Pressman
Aaron Pressman
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 23, 2018, 12:54 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Every year, the survey wizards at the American Customer Satisfaction Index poll tens of thousands of customers of almost 400 leading companies to uncover how satisfied they are across a variety of key indicators. And for many years, the cable TV industry and its side-business of providing Internet service have come up dead last in customer satisfaction.

This year was no different, though the dissatisfaction is worsening. Cable TV companies averaged a score of 62 on the ACSI’s 100 point scale, down 3% from last year and the lowest rating for the industry in 11 years. Cable TV tied for the lowest average score among the 46 different industry groups in the survey, with Internet service providers ranking equally poorly. Not surprisingly, many of the same companies, such as Comcast and Frontier Communications, are in both groups. The top-ranked companies in 2018 were TV set makers, with an average score of 85; breweries, which averaged 84; and soft drink makers, also scoring an average of 84.

Cable companies fared poorly in the 2018 American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Credit: Cable companies fared poorly in the 2018 American Customer Satisfaction Index

The poor results for cable come amid an acceleration of cord cutting, the phenomenon of people dropping cable or never subscribing in the first place. The rise of Internet video services like Netflix and Amazon Prime has raised customer expectations, ACSI managing director David VanAmburg explains.

The Internet video services offer greater personalization, better user interfaces, and a lower price, he says. Meanwhile, cable bills are up 53% over the past 10 years to an average of over $100 a month. “As a result, cable and satellite television customers think they are paying higher prices for lesser value and receiving poor service to boot,” VanAmburg wrote in a blog post accompanying the 2018 report.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Digging into the results, cable industry customers were increasingly dissatisfied compared to 2017 with picture quality, helpfulness of staff, frequency of service interruptions, and call center assistance.

Mediacom Communications, the fifth-largest cable operator, ranked dead last in the survey with a rating of just 55. It also ranked last as an ISP with a rating of 53. By comparison, Netflix (NFLX) got a rating of 78 in its Internet video industry category. Mediacom said it expects to improve its score as it nears completion of a three-year, $1 billion effort to bring 1 gigabit-per-second Internet speeds to its customers. “We believe this is the type of transformative change that will greatly improve the customer experience moving forward,” the company said in a statement.

Frontier Communications ranked second to last as a cable TV provider with a score of 56; it scored 54 as an ISP. The company has been struggling mightily with debt from its 2015 purchase of customers from Verizon in California, Florida, and Texas. Frontier (FTR) did not respond to a request for comment.

Cable giant Comcast, the largest cable provider, ranked third from the bottom in its industry with a score of 57. Comcast (CMCSA) did a little better as an ISP, ranking in a tie for 6th out of 12 with a score of 60. The company declined to comment on the ACSI report.

The top-ranked cable TV companies were AT&T’s (T) U-Verse, with a score of 70; Verizon’s (VZ) Fios, with a score of 68; and Dish Network (DISH), with a score of 67.

(Update: This story was corrected on May 23 to note that Comcast finished in a tie for 6th place in the ISP rankings, instead of finishing 7th.)

About the Author
By Aaron Pressman
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

orson
CommentaryOpenAI
We got California to intervene about OpenAI’s corporate switch from nonprofit status. It’s time for the SEC to come to the table
By Orson Aguilar and Catherine BracyJuly 22, 2026
3 hours ago
A woman observes stock trends on her smartphone while a computer screen displays financial graphs.
NewslettersCFO Daily
Beyond SpaceX: Why great IPOs depend on more than first-day demand
By Sheryl EstradaJuly 22, 2026
3 hours ago
Arrakis cofounder and CEO Rafael Quintanilla.
Startups & VentureVenture Capital
Exclusive: Arrakis, betting AI’s biggest payoff is in industrial sectors not office work, emerges from stealth with $38 million in venture funding
By Jeremy KahnJuly 22, 2026
3 hours ago
ls
Commentarybooks
Confessions of an award-winning AI memoirist — the ‘slop’ debate isn’t really about good writing, and you know it
By Luke StoffelJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago
b
Commentarythe future of work
Manpower President: The future of work question that even CEOs can’t answer
By Becky FrankiewiczJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago
nela
Successdisruption
Exclusive: Stanford and ADP have new payroll data on Gen Z women losing ground to men in the job market—and AI isn’t the main culprit
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago

Most Popular

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
Cybersecurity
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
By Jeremy Kahn and Emily ForliniJuly 21, 2026
19 hours ago
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
AI
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
By Eva RoytburgJuly 21, 2026
23 hours ago
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
Success
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
By Sydney LakeJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
Success
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
By Emma BurleighJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
AI
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
By Jason MaJuly 18, 2026
4 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.