Pay television is the service least valued by Spanish households

Electricity supply is in second place, while fixed broadband is in third place.

The pay television has become the service with the highest percentage of dissatisfied users and has thus displaced the electricity supply after several years occupying the first position.

These are the data reflected in the last wave of the Household Panel of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), which correspond to the fourth quarter of 2019.

Thus, 17.8% of households claim to be little or not at all satisfied with the pay television service. Second and third place are occupied by electricity supply and fixed broadband, with 15.5% and 14.9% of households dissatisfied respectively. It is important to highlight that this survey collects data corresponding to the fourth quarter of 2019, so it reflects the market situation before the state of alarm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reasons for dissatisfaction

On the contrary, telephony and mobile Internet are the services that obtain the best ratings with percentages of satisfied households around 60%.

To be more specific and as has been observed in other waves of the Panel, the main reason for household dissatisfaction is the price level. Thus, 93.5% of dissatisfied users of the electricity service state that the service is expensive and 89.8% think the same about natural gas. For these energy supply services, the second reason for discontent is the lack of clarity in invoices and prices.

The quality of service (for example, due to interruptions in supply) is the second reason for dissatisfaction for fixed broadband, pay television and mobile Internet customers. In the case of landline and mobile telephony, poor customer service is the second cause of dissatisfaction.

However, dissatisfaction with service prices has decreased compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, especially in the case of energy services. For example, the percentage of households dissatisfied with the price of electricity supply has decreased by more than seven percentage points in the last year (from 54.4% to 47.3%).

On the other hand, the assessment of customer service of the different services is quite similar to that of the fourth quarter of 2018, with the percentages of dissatisfied users being between 10% and 15%.

Claims

Regarding complaints submitted by customers, fixed broadband remains the service with the highest percentage of households filing complaints: 15.4%. On the contrary, the percentage of households that file complaints about gas and electricity services continues to be around 4-5%, less than half that of broadband and landline telephone services.

Taking into account the reasons given by clients for complaining, the main one, in almost all cases, is billing problems, with percentages higher than 50%, a trend that is also repeated in previous waves of the Panel. However, for fixed broadband, the majority complaint is the lack of quality of service (supply interruptions) (53.6%).

Finally, when it comes to receiving the invoice, electronic means are gaining ground. Although more than 50% of households continue to receive electricity and gas bills on paper, around 60-70% already receive bills for telecom services and bank communications electronically.