Can Cable Companies Get Away With Being Hated? In Short, Yes

High prices, poor customer service, a lackluster reliability of products: Customers despise their cable TV provider, but lack a sufficient alternative to cut the cord.

Mobsters on TV say it is better to be feared than loved. Cable companies in real life know that it is cheaper to be hated than loved—and that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

According to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, Time Warner Cable  TWC 0.11%  and Comcast  CMCSA 0.08% had the lowest customer satisfaction of pay-TV companies. Both experienced declines in user satisfaction: Comcast fell 5% to 60, while Time Warner registered a 7% decline to 56. It’s the lowest score to date for the two companies in the index, which is published quarterly by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and is considered the most comprehensive customer satisfaction survey in the nation...