MediaTalk | Season 4 | Ep. 31 - What's Driving TV Subscriber Satisfaction in 2026?

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Mike Reynolds: Hi, I'm Mike Reynolds, a senior reporter covering the media industry with the S&P Global Market Intelligence Tech, Media and Telecom news team. Welcome to "MediaTalk," a podcast hosted by S&P Global Market Intelligence, where the news and research staff explore issues in the ever-changing media landscape. Today, I'm joined once again by returning guest, Brian Bacon. Brian is a research analyst on the Consumer Insights team within the Tech, Media, and Telecom group at S&P Global Market Intelligence. How are we doing today, Brian?

Brian Bacon: Great, Mike. It's a pleasure to be back.

Reynolds: All right. Three key elements to today's podcast. First, we're going to look at subscriber video satisfaction levels, going back to the first quarter, then get into some of the demographic trends and reasons why people subscribe to various video offerings. And finally, we're going to check out something that's relatively new, I think—virtual basic cable. We're going to start off with the macro satisfaction. But before we do, Brian, can you give us, our listeners, a sense for how you guys collect and then assess the data?

Bacon: Sure thing. What we'll be covering today comes from our first quarter Media Census survey, which is an online survey that went into the field in February. The main focus of the survey is to help us determine TV package penetration rates for the major TV operators in the US. And to do that, we survey up to 20,000 respondents. Now, it would be a shame to only ask what TV package they have, so we also ask them about other services they use, their length of subscription, the reasons for subscribing, and of course, satisfaction.

Reynolds: Okay. All right, so a lot of stuff. And again, indulge the old guy here. The Rolling Stones and their version of not getting enough satisfaction dates to 1965. Flash to 2025, it wasn't necessarily a big year for TV package satisfaction, Brian.

Bacon: Yeah, overall, US TV satisfaction rates have remained pretty stable. The survey question is straightforward, with respondents selecting from a five-point scale. Reliably, about three-quarters of subscribers surveyed indicated they were very or somewhat satisfied with their service, but the share of subscribers who were very satisfied rose from 34% in 2025 to 39% in 2026. I believe that satisfaction rates were impacted by several factors, including the 2026 Winter Olympics, which were occurring during the fielding of this survey. As for the 2025 survey, several TV operators had implemented price hikes in late 2024 and early 2025. For example, there was a $10 a month increase for YouTube TV in January of 2025, so right before we fielded that wave of the survey.

Reynolds: I gotcha. I gotcha. And yeah, no one's happy about that. But anyway, all right. Virtual providers, Brian—they seem to have better satisfied customers.

Bacon: Yeah. Overall satisfaction among virtual multi-channel subs tends to outpace satisfaction among traditional subscribers. YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV in particular have the largest shares of very or somewhat satisfied subscribers over the past two years.

Reynolds: Yeah, that's some big numbers. I think they're 94% YouTube and 88% for the Disney offering. So yeah, that's about as good as it's going to get, I would imagine. Brian, is there some kind of correlation between the satisfaction level and how people watch their TV?

Bacon: One of the things that's always differentiated virtual multi-channel from traditional was the exclusion of some local broadcast networks from the channel lineup. This led me to wonder if there was a difference in satisfaction between those who used an antenna to watch over-the-air broadcast and those who don't. At first, it seemed like there was no difference since satisfaction rates were nearly identical. But when I looked at those who used an antenna more closely, it turns out respondents who used their antenna at least once per week were more likely to be satisfied with their pay TV package. Though I have a feeling this has more to do with how they engage with TV viewing, right? They just need more sources for their TV.

Reynolds: Makes sense. Makes sense. All right. Next up, we're going to turn to hybrid video. This is something "MediaTalk" discussed last year with Tom Montemagno, who's executive VP of Programming Acquisition at Charter. Beginning with Disney in the fall of '23, Charter, as it has renewed its carriage deals with programmers, has also secured the rights to their ad-supported VOD offerings or subscription VOD offerings. This hybrid linear-digital offering, which goes by the name of Seamless Entertainment, gives Spectrum TV Select subscribers access to the cable channels, but for no extra fees, a host of ad-supported VOD services. Can you talk a little bit about that? It seems like it's a pretty good deal, right?

Bacon: Yeah, I was really interested in this part. The survey doesn't ask about it specifically, but we do ask respondents which SVOD services they use in their household. I pulled together the list of services Charter subscribers have access to with those Select packages and compared satisfaction rates among those who use at least one of those to those that only use services that aren't included, like Netflix, and those who don't use any SVOD services. Satisfaction was highest among those who use at least one of those included services, with 39% indicating they were very satisfied compared to 32% among those using just the other stuff and 24% among those who don't use any SVOD. Now, I will throw in a caveat here. This was among all Charter subscribers surveyed, so they might not necessarily have a package that includes those services.

Reynolds: Right.

Bacon: But in the attached Excel for that article, I provided a breakdown of satisfaction by package for each operator. So if you wanted to look at that, you could.

Reynolds: Okay. Brian, again, your thoughts on the Spectrum Seamless offering. You're in the game, right?

Bacon: Yeah, as a Spectrum subscriber myself, I can say that it works very well. I've also been able to use the Xumo device that integrates all of that into one thing, and it's a seamless experience.

Reynolds: Okay. If I could ask, how many of the video services do you check out? Is there HBO Max or Disney or what have you?

Bacon: Across my household, we've used quite a few of them, but it is something that you hop from one to the other. I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily a constant user of any one of them in particular.

Reynolds: Okay. All right. Let's talk about sports a little bit. With so many entertainment choices and platforms, including VOD, sports have increasingly become the must-see TV or at least the must-see appointment viewing. The online survey speaks to sports satisfaction as well.

Bacon: Yeah, since sports content is so important, I looked at the sports questions we've included in the survey to see if there was any correlation between sports content and satisfaction. As I expected, those who frequently watched games for the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL were more likely to be satisfied with their TV package compared to infrequent viewers, and especially those who don't watch games from these leagues.

Reynolds: Yeah. Yeah. Conversely, the other narrative about sports is that if you're a fan of NFL, NBA, MLB, and soccer as well, that in order to watch every game or match, or more realistically at least have access to all of them, you need to pay for multiple platforms. It's a pretty pricey endeavor. Brian, you're a sports fan—your thoughts about this?

Bacon: I think these leagues need to be careful. Based on results from our survey, the average number of SVOD services used has hovered around 3.5 going back to 2020, and there is a breaking point. But it gets complicated because of things like we've discussed where services are included or discounted through other subscriptions. But the frustration is building among sports viewers who are finding it difficult to keep track of where they can find the games they want to watch and if they can even access it.

Reynolds: Yeah. It has its issues, for sure. All right. We're now going to turn to some of the specifics about the US traditional multichannel subscriber trends and demos in the first quarter. You guys survey a large group of subscribers and operators here.

Bacon: Yeah, I've been putting together this crosstab file for a few years now as a way to provide a bunch of data from the survey segmented by operator for quick reference and comparison. In the future, I plan to combine this with the same thing that we've done for virtual multi-channels so that all of it's put into one place.

Reynolds: Yeah, we're talking about Spectrum and Comcast and Optimum, as well as Dish and Fios and DirecTV, and then some smaller players like Breezeline, Sparklight, Service Electric. So it's a real good composite of the industry. All right. Brian, let's go a little bit through reasons why people subscribe. I would imagine top of the list, no surprise, it's pricing.

Bacon: Yeah. Cable and telco subscribers were much less likely to say they subscribe because it was the best price for the channels I received/wanted at 12% and 13% respectively, compared to satellite subscribers at 23%.

Reynolds: Maybe I should have asked this first. You can't pay if you can't buy, so availability is also key.

Bacon: Yeah. Among satellite subscribers, 11% indicated they subscribed to the service because they were in a rural area without a wired option. Another 10% selected a similar reason of "best service/only option in my area," which you could say is the option for those that maybe they live in an area where there is another wired service, but they don't consider it to be as good as the satellite option.

Reynolds: I gotcha. I gotcha. All right. Let's talk about—I think this is really key these days—bundling with internet service providers. You kinda have to have both.

Bacon: Yeah, satellite operators can partner with local ISPs, but this is an area where the wired services have a clear advantage. 19% among cable and telco subs indicated they subscribed because of a bundled deal, compared to only 6% of satellite customers.

Reynolds: All right. Still, I think another thing you asked—some people don't want any part of a satellite dish, right? That's important.

Bacon: It's relatively small. Only 8% of cable and 6% of telco subs said that they didn't want a satellite dish.

Reynolds: Okay. Indulge me here. I live in a co-op. I found out the hard way I couldn't have a dish. My brother got a DirecTV subscription in his apartment. He loved it, I saw it, I thought it was really good. Had DTV come out and put the platform in outside the window, then the super and a co-op board member wagged their fingers. It was a big no-no. Years later, Verizon was allowed in, and we've opted to be Fios service over Cablevision, now Optimum, for all this time. But again, we weren't allowed to do the satellite thing.

Bacon: Yeah. Maybe I should alter the option in the survey a bit to "don't want/can't have a satellite dish."

Reynolds: All right. Fair enough. That's good. All right. You also have some survey info about who or what influenced customer subscription choices.

Bacon: Yeah, I mentioned bringing the virtual multi-channel data into this so that it'll all be in one place. And one thing to mention as an example here is age, with about 18% of cable and satellite subscribers surveyed—they were under the age of 35, while telco was a little higher at 22%. But if you go over and look at the virtual multi-channel crosstab, that shows 29% of those subscribers were under the age of 35.

Reynolds: A lot of good stuff there, Brian. And is there anything that you found especially interesting or surprised by as you took a deeper dive?

Bacon: Yeah. One thing is we asked respondents what was the network that they watched the most on their TV subscription. And the way that question works is that, instead of just picking from the list of 200 networks that are there, they can type in the name of the network, and it sort of auto-fills to filter down. And then when I put this together, I condensed that down to the top 25 most selected networks. ABC was the most selected, but I have a feeling that was partly due to that network being at the top of the list, so...

Reynolds: Yeah, alphabetical order works...

Bacon: Yeah, people might have just seen it, clicked on it, and moved on. But after that came ESPN, followed by CBS and NBC, and that was pretty much across the board regardless of operator.

Reynolds: Our third and final topic of the day examines virtual offerings. Brian, you guys did some survey work about what is de facto—I think you guys are saying it's the new basic cable.

Bacon: Yeah, I started referencing these as virtual options because apparently the operators refer to them as virtual multi-channel, but I wanted to avoid the confusion. So basically, these offerings work similarly to virtual multi-channel in that they are streamed live TV services over the internet. But while anyone with an internet connection can sign up to YouTube TV, these virtual options are only available to those who already get home internet from that operator. So for example, Comcast's Now TV is only available to those who have their Xfinity home internet.

Reynolds: So you got to have home court advantage that way. Makes sense. Let's take a look at these individually. Charter's is Spectrum TV Choice. Brian, what can you tell us about that one?

Bacon: This one reminds me of what Sling tried to do when they first launched, because it's a small set of channels. It's customizable. Subscribers for this one, they get to select 15 channels out of a list of networks.

Reynolds: Okay.

Bacon: Notably, one of those is ESPN, which is typically left out of these less expensive offerings.

Reynolds: Yeah, 'cause those are, as it goes, ESPN remains the king of affiliate fees on the basic cable side. Is local broadcast included in any of these?

Bacon: Yes, but selecting local broadcast networks might come with an additional charge. It's because of that that a lot of skinny bundle offerings tend to cut some or all four of the big broadcast networks out in an effort to keep down those subscription prices.

Reynolds: What about penetration levels for this, for Spectrum's offerings here?

Bacon: Yeah, based on results from the survey and other industry data, I only estimate a penetration rate of 3%. By comparison, Spectrum's Basic package, which is a traditional option and...

Reynolds: That's the regular TV, right?

Bacon: Yeah. That one's at 23%.

Reynolds: Okay.

Bacon: They've got another virtual option called TV Stream. I've got that one at 22%. Neither of those, so Spectrum Basic or this TV Stream option, neither of those include ESPN. So that's a big difference there. TV Stream doesn't include the local broadcast networks. It's got a lot of those FAST channels that are included in there.

Reynolds: All right. How about we go to the Comcast side. What is Xfinity offering?

Bacon: Now TV, that's Comcast's virtual option. They've also got a Now TV Latino option, which has even fewer channels. Now TV is listed as having 40-plus channels compared to the base traditional option, which is either called Limited Basic or Core TV—it depends on which market you're in. That only has listed as 10-plus channels.

Reynolds: Wow.

Bacon: So while I've got Limited Basic at a 13% pen rate, Now TV and Now TV Latino, I've only got a 2%, which is the same pen rate as Xfinity's relatively new genre packs. So these genre packs are like a new trend. They're basically a sort of skinny bundle. DirecTV is selling their version as a kind of mix-and-match custom package. So a limited number of channels at a lower price. I have Xfinity Sports and News and World Soccer Ticket Packs at 2% each.

Reynolds: Yeah, DirecTV—going back to when they had a few years ago with Disney, that was part and parcel of what they wanted to do, is to be able to get those options to package things that might appeal to certain customer base and their interest. All right. How about Cox? Its Light TV offering I think has the highest penetration rate among this group.

Bacon: The reason Cox Light is so high is because it now works as the lowest or base tier. So after I get the survey back from the field, I try to figure out a way to assign each respondent to the package they receive based on a number of different questions. And the TV Light and TV Starter packages for Cox are so similar, it's difficult to distinguish them based on our usual criteria. The virtual option, TV Light, came in at 12%, while TV Starter was at 18%. And if you look back to our previous results, that's basically splitting the old pen rate that we had for TV Starter.

Reynolds: Is there, Brian, again—it's a fair number of channels in these offerings, right?

Bacon: That's right. Any time you have got a new package to add to the lineup, the pen rates would be expected to start out small, but there are some exceptions. TV Light is the smallest Cox TV package. However, it does include cable networks that are usually found in the preferred package like HGTV, AMC, et cetera.

Reynolds: Okay.

Bacon: TV Starter is listed as having 75-plus channels, but these are mostly local broadcast networks and those Music Choice radio-type channels.

Reynolds: Sure. So—yeah, they split that stuff up pretty well that way.

Bacon: Yeah.

Reynolds: All right. Perhaps this kind of offering gets more play if Charter and Cox actually merge.

Bacon: Yeah, integration like that takes a while. Whatever contracts they have with the networks will need to get hashed out again at some point. Who knows?

Reynolds: Yeah, "MediaTalk" just did an interview with Lou Borrelli, who's the CEO of the National Content and Technology Cooperative. And they're offering a, I guess what they call a Broadband TV plan. It's a skinny bundle of sorts, but by Lou's own description, maybe not so skinny. It's got 50 to 60 brand-name cable channels, but no sports or news, and that's to keep the pricing down as we've discussed. Brian, your sense—is this going to become very common, everybody's going to do this?

Bacon: The lines are really getting blurred. Using myself as an example, I have a traditional multi-channel TV service, but I don't have a cable box hooked up to any of my TVs. Truly virtual services like YouTube TV have the advantage of no long-term contracts—they're available nationwide. But traditional operators could counter that with the bundling advantage. I think the important thing is to have the option. They want to retain subscribers, especially when it comes to home internet. So offering a traditional bundle that includes everything, alongside a more limited/customized option that cuts down on the fluff is a way to appeal to a broader set of consumers.

Reynolds: Yeah, and you want to keep those broadband customers 'cause that's where the margins are. All right. That concludes this episode of "MediaTalk." I want to thank our guest, Brian Bacon, for joining us again and walking us through some of the interesting consumer survey findings around video and virtual subscriptions. Appreciate it as always, Brian.

Bacon: Thanks for having me again, Mike.

Reynolds: All righty. And for a more in-depth view of Brian's stories and Kagan survey findings, please visit our CapIQ Pro website. This is Mike Reynolds. Thanks to all of you for listening. We'll catch up soon on the next installment of "MediaTalk."