March 20, 2008

Sweeping change has overtaken the TV service provider industry. That's good news for fiber optic and satellite companies, and horrible news for the cable industry.

Even as cable providers clamor to attract new customers and offer specialized bundles to retain their current ones, the tide is inexorably shifting in favor of fiber and satellite.

In a February 18-25 ChangeWave survey, we asked consumers who plan to switch TV providers in the next 90 day who they were going to sign up with. The results weren't even close:

DIRECTV (DTV; 30%), Verizon FiOS (VZ; 28%), AT&T U-verse (T; 14%) and DISH Network(DISH; 10%) were the top four destinations for customers that are switching. The big cable companies hardly register on the radar screen.

It gets worse. Cable customers report far lower satisfaction ratings (70% satisfied) than either Fiber (85%) or Satellite (85%) customers.

Numbers like these point to rough times ahead for the big cable giants.