Since their merger announcement on February 13th, the US consumer perception of both Time-Warner Cable and Comcast has taken a significant dive.
Time-Warner Cable is currently at its lowest standings since the lengthy battle with CBS over carriage fees last summer. Comcast hit its lowest perception levels since November 2012, when 500 employees were laid off prompting Jay Leno to take a voluntary pay cut, and services were disrupted in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Both cable companies also displayed large drops in quality perception as well as the number of consumers willing to recommend the brands to their friends. Consumers may be concerned that the merged company will be less sensitive to their needs or may offer less value and fewer choices in the future.
Over the same post-announcement time period, Cablevision, Charter and Cox consumer perception remained steady and relatively neutral, and well above both TWC and Comcast. Cox, which was rumored to be a potential bidder, actually bumped up to a small degree for a few days after the merger announcement was made.
Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner Cable were measured with three of YouGov BrandIndex’s scores: Buzz ("If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"), Quality ("Is it high quality or low quality?") and Willingness To Recommend ("Would you recommend the brand to a friend?"). All respondents were age 18 and over.
YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz, Quality and Willingness To Recommend scores range is from 100 to -100 and compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.
Buzz: Cablevision/Optimum, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Comcat/Xfinity, Cox
Quality: Cablevision/Optimum, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Comcat/Xfinity, Cox
Recommend: Cablevision/Optimum, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Comcat/Xfinity, Cox
