That most linear video service suppliers rank low on measures of “quality of experience” is shown by the results of the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual ranking of companies based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

In these ratings, a score of 70 percent or above is considered "good," and a score of 80 percent or above is considered "excellent." So where do video service providers rank?

Below those levels, “Overall, the TV services industry averaged a 54 percent rating in the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, making it the lowest ranked of any of the 19 industries,” Temkin says.

Bright House got a rating of 63 percent, while DirecTV ranked at 62 percent.

Dish Network was rated at 60 percent, Cox (News - Alert) Communications at 58 percent, and Cablevision at 56 percent.

Although telco video services rank much higher, relative to cable TV suppliers, on some other surveys, Temkin reports Verizon at 54 percent and AT&T (News - Alert) at 53 percent.  

Time Warner Cable got a 52 percent score, Charter Communications received a 48 percent mark,  and Comcast (News - Alert) rated 47 percent.

The good news is that TV service suppliers managed to improve its rating over 2013 levels, albeit only by 0.4 percentage points.

Compared to 2013 rankings, Cox Communications gained seven points, while DirecTV (News - Alert) rose four points, as did Time Warner Cable.

But rankings for Comcast dropped six points, Cablevision slid three points, and Charter Communications sank two points in the 2014 rankings, compared to 2013.

To generate these ratings, Temkin Group asked consumers to evaluate their experiences with a company across three dimensions: functional (can you do what you want to do?), accessible (how easy is it to work with the company?), and emotional (how do you feel about the interactions?) Temkin Group then averaged these three scores to produce a company's Temkin Experience Rating.

The findings are broadly consistent with other measures of customer satisfaction with services and products provided to U.S. consumers, in the sense that video services are among the industries with the least consumer satisfaction.