Cable TV Tips

Cable TV and Satellite Customer Satisfaction

Are there differences in cable customer satisfaction and satellite television customer satisfaction?

According to J.D. Powers and Associates, cable customers reported, on average, cable outages of 3 to 5 percent of the time per year. It ranked cable companies as "good" to "poor" when it comes to customer satisfaction for the last five years.

J.D. Powers and Associates also reported that satellite had power outages 1 percent of the time each year. It ranked satellite companies, Dish Network and DIRECTV, as higher in customer satisfaction compared to cable customers for the last five years of service.

Dish Network vs DIRECTV

When it all comes down to it, which satellite provider is better? Dish Network or DIRECTV? Let's talk about some of the other perks for each and then you can determine which one has more to offer.

DIRECTV has tons of programming packages and hundreds of channels. It also offers, for an added cost, NFL's Sunday Ticket, which allows you to receive all of the NFL games played every Sunday. Dish Network has a lot of programming packages and hundreds of channels. Prices are very reasonable and there seems to be something for everyone.

As mentioned above, DIRECTV offers the NFL Sunday Ticket for a sports package. Dish Network, while not offering the NFL Sunday Ticket, does have season ticket packages for its viewers. You can choose from, and for a price, professional soccer games, MLB (Major League Baseball), NBA games, and professional hockey games.

If Pay-Per-View is important to you, then you are in luck regardless of if you choose Dish Network or DIRECTV. Pay-Per-View is available to all customers with both satellite providers.

As far as price goes, it often seems that DIRECTV is more expensive than Dish Network. However, DIRECTV seems higher because its packages usually include many more channels when compared to packages with Dish Network.

Which one is better? That is really up to the viewer!

DIRECTV History

Everything has a history, including DIRECTV. DIRECTV began in 1994 as a direct broadcast satellite system that transmits satellite television to homes and businesses throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America.

In 1981 a man known as Stanley Hubbard, a founder of the United States Satellite Broadcasting. It took ten years for the rest of the world, in the technology sense, to catch up to his vision. He eventually contacted RCA Electronics and Hughes Electronics with the hope of developing a satellite television service for people in their homes by using a dish. The dish was based on a dish, although much smaller, that was created by the Global Broadcast System. Eventually the two agreed to work together to bring satellite with the dish to consumers. Thus, in 1994 DIRECTV was launched.

As of June 2006, DIRECTV is responsible for bringing satellite television to almost 16 million viewers in the above mentioned areas. In keeping with DIRECTV's customer satisfaction, the company proved it really does listen to its customers and has made a promise that by the end of 2007, 100 percent of its markets will have local programming available to all customers.

Dish Network History

If you have Dish Network as your satellite television provider, you are a subscriber to the fastest growing provider of advanced digital television for the last five years.

Dish Network was first developed in 1996 and owned by a parent company known as EchoStar. In 1995, EchoStar decided to develop its first commercial satellite. This satellite was known as EchoStar . This was a major gamble for EchoStar, but it paid off for the company with its success. Because of the success, EchoStar launched Dish Network the following year for people to utilize within their homes. The "Dish" in Dish Network stands for Digital Sky Highway.

Dish Network has grown in popularity throughout the years and in 2006 was serving more than 12 million houses. In the last five years alone, Dish Network has had more than 6 million customers sign up for service with them. On average, Dish Network is viewed by around 30 million people in the 12 million homes that are subscribers to this specific satellite television.

Interactive TV and Cable vs Satellite

Is there a difference in interactive programming with cable television compared with satellite television?

Cable television will bring with it an interactive, electronic program guide that pops up on your television. Cable will also offer you On Demand videos, movies and shows and On Demand subscription services in many areas.

Satellite television will bring with it an interactive, electronic program guide that, like cable, will be available through your remote and visible on your television screen. You will also be offered Pay-Per-View programming and DVR (Digital Video Recorder). DVR allows you to fast-forward, rewind, pause and stop programming as you are viewing it.