Study: Prime Video, Peacock Lead On-Demand Streamers in Customer Satisfaction; Hulu Tops Live TV Services
“The customer is always right,” or so the old adage goes. Anyone who has ever worked in the retail industry would dispute this maxim to their last breath, but companies still use customer satisfaction as an important benchmark when determining the health of their business. Even streaming services, which 74% of customers claimed they were satisfied with in 2022, are not immune to scrutiny.
If you’re Peacock or Prime Video these days, you must be feeling pretty healthy indeed. The American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has just released its findings for customer satisfaction in the field of telecommunications for 2022-23. As part of this report, ACSI found that Prime Video was the top subscription video streaming service in terms of customer satisfaction, with 80% of users reporting they had a good experience with the service. On average, 77% of customers reported being satisfied with streaming overall in 2023.
Peacock came in a close second, with 79% of its customers marking themselves as satisfied. No streamer registered under 70% satisfaction, although both Disney+ and ESPN+ saw themselves slip in satisfaction ratings as compared to 2022’s numbers. The ASCI 2022-23 Telecommunications study identified Crackle as the streamer with the lowest satisfaction rating.
It’s not too hard to see why Prime Video registers so highly in terms of customer satisfaction. The service has a wealth of original dramas, sports titles, and more. It also serves as the exclusive home of national broadcasts of “Thursday Night Football,” creating several alternative broadcasts and different viewing modes to give fans the optimal viewing experience.
Peacock has also made big strides in the last year, and the year to come might see its consumer satisfaction score rise even higher. Peacock added streams of local NBC affiliates to its Premium Plus tier in 210 markets last winter, and grew from 9 million to 20 million subscribers in 2022. The service is clearly doing something right, because it has continued to build on that success in 2023, rising to 22 million customers by the end of the first quarter.
If there are any services on this list that should be wary of the results of next year’s ASCI Telecommunications study, it’s Netflix. That streamer recently introduced long-promised rules designed to stop password sharing among users. A recent survey found that almost 40% of U.S. adults think the new rules mean they’d lose access to Netflix altogether, and considering the social media reactions to Netflix’s password-sharing guidelines, it figures to take a hit in terms of satisfaction over the coming months.
ASCI’s survey also showed which live TV streaming services ranked most highly among users. It found that Hulu + Live TV was tops when it came to customer satisfaction. Interestingly, while DIRECTV was the highest-rated cable or satellite provider of all services, its streaming cohort DIRECTV STREAM was last among the four live TV services sampled by ASCI in its study.
Hulu + Live TV’s place at the top of the list is at least partially attributable to its inclusion of the Disney Bundle with most of its plans, which gives it a big boost in terms of value. DIRECTV STREAM’s struggles in relation to its satellite sibling indicate that users are dissatisfied with some portion of the interface or app, as DIRECTV STREAM plans to offer the same incredible channel selection as a linear DIRECTV option.
Customer satisfaction can admittedly be a bit of a fickle metric. Some users who are perfectly happy with their service one moment will be ready to burn it down if a certain title is removed from that platform. Companies still track consumer satisfaction closely, however, particularly streamers who are constantly worried about churn.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.