While Charter is a marked consumer satisfaction improvement over Comcast in its $55 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable, it’s the other piece of today’s announcement -- the $10 billion takeover of lesser-known Bright House Networks – that perhaps should not be overlooked.
Syracuse, NY-based Bright House, the sixth largest owner and operator of cable systems in the U.S, has the third highest consumer satisfaction ranking in the industry, placing far above the sector’s average score.
YouGov BrandIndex used its Satisfaction score to measure perception, which asks respondents: "Are you a satisfied customer?" A score can range from 100 to -100 with a zero score equaling a neutral position.
Looking at the big picture with the players in the recent successful and failed deals, let’s start with the cable and satellite TV sector’s average Satisfaction score across all players, which is 7.
Charter, Comcast and Time Warner Cable all have Satisfaction scores below that line and in negative numbers, with Charter having the highest (-3), Comcast in the middle (-11), and Time Warner Cable last (-14). That means, for example, that 3% more people said they were more negative about Charter than positive about the brand.
On the other hand, Bright House is far above the industry’s average Satisfaction score, coming in with a 21 score, just behind leaders RCN (33) and Verizon FiOS (29).
Whether or not Bright House has a customer satisfaction approach that can be leveraged to improve scores across its bigger corporate siblings remains to be seen.
