Cable providers for years have struggled with their consistently poor showing in consumer satisfaction reports and, as a result, have been ramping up efforts (and spending) to improve customer support. They're hiring more support reps and doing away with traditionally annoying installation headaches like the all-day service appointment.

The satellite industry yearly enjoys noting that they beat cable in customer satisfaction. However, applauding yourself for being the best only because you were average (and dropping) in a group of dismal performers is a dubious distinction.

Reports like The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) have yet to include services like FiOSTV in their rankings, so Verizon has gone ahead and commissioned their own report. Not too suprisingly, Verizon TV soundly beats cable providers, who in the last ACSI ranked lower than any other industry in America (even the IRS, which is saying something).

These results show that the work we put into our networks, our product offerings and our service packages is recognized by our customers. -Verizon

From Verizon's report:

"Customers were asked, based on their experience with their current service provider, how likely they are to recommend their provider to friends and others. In a solid measure of satisfaction, nearly 40 percent of Verizon customers said they were very likely to recommend Verizon bundles to others. Comparable numbers were just over 31 percent for Cox, 28 percent for Time Warner, 25 percent for Cablevision, 24 percent for Charter and 23 percent for Comcast."

While FiOS is obviously a great service that's well reviewed among our users, beating cable in customer satisfaction is kind of like beating your pet in a dueling banjo match.