Our analyses are independent and evidence based
If you’ve poked around CableTV.com a little, you’ve probably seen that we like to have some fun with TV and home internet.
But don’t get it twisted: We take our research and testing seriously, basing our surveys, reviews, and ratings on a unique blend of hard data and qualitative analysis.
Read on to see how we rate and test (i.e., have fun with) the services and products featured on our site.
Customer Satisfaction Award surveys
Since 2017, we’ve surveyed tens of thousands of TV and home internet customers to learn what folks like you think about your home entertainment services. We believe customer experience (CX) should be central to any review or guide because we want our readers equipped to make better decisions when choosing services for their households.
Each year, we run four surveys covering cable and satellite TV, live TV streaming services, on-demand streaming services, and home internet services.
We randomly select over 5,000 respondents for each survey and then filter responses using current U.S. demographics to reflect real sentiment across the country.
To be featured in our Customer Satisfaction Awards, each service must meet a minimum 100-respondent threshold, which limits the margin of error to acceptable levels.
We only issue a handful of awards for each survey because we’re not in the business of handing out participation trophies. Check out our most prestigious Customer Satisfaction Awards, or see every 2025 winner.
Highest Overall Satisfaction
Our most distinguished award, Highest Overall Satisfaction, combines the percentage results of customers who were either completely or very satisfied from all the survey questions.
Best Bang for Your Buck
Value is king at CableTV.com, so we survey customers about their experience and perceptions of pricing vs. performance. The winner of Best Bang for Your Buck gets the job done at the right price.
Most Reliable
When your TV or internet goes out, who suffers? (You, duh.) If connectivity and buffering are issues for you, Most Reliable is our award that’ll impact your future purchase discisions the most.
Best Customer Experience
Customer service and user experience (UX) touch us all. Winners of our Best Customer Experience Award can help you avoid everything from excruciating phone calls with reps to terrible interfaces.
Why does CableTV.com cover streaming and internet?
Folks always ask why a website called CableTV.com would cover streaming and home internet services. It’s a fair question.
CableTV.com launched in 2007 as a way for people to compare cable TV providers in their area. TV has changed a lot since then, and we’ve broadened our coverage over time to better serve our readers’ needs.
In the vast majority of cases, TV requires a home internet connection, whether it’s delivered via a cable bundle or a standalone streaming service.
Best of the Best Awards
Every Best of the Best Award is determined by crunching data like customer satisfaction scores, price increases, hidden fees, and reliability.
Whenever possible, we also test the services we review and rank. (We test every streaming service, but cable TV and home internet are harder to get our hands on because they’re only available in certain areas.)
Our years of testing and reliability data combined with our expert research add valuable context and comparison points to the customer satisfaction data we collect every year.
While “the customer always knows best” still rings true, our editors live and breathe this stuff. Editor insights help our readers compare and shop for only the best of the best, including services they’ve never used or even heard of.
Just like our Customer Satisfaction Awards, we only confer a handful of Best of the Best Awards for TV and home internet, respectively. Check out our most coveted Best of the Best Awards to get a sense of our criteria.
Best of the Best
Best of the Best winners are the Maserati of their category. Stacked channel lineups? Yep. Tons of award-winning shows and movies? Check and check. Faster-than-fast internet speeds? You bet your sweet butt. Expensive? Probably. Worth it? Definitely (if you got the cash).
Best Bang for Your Buck
Like we said, value is king at CableTV.com, so we compare advertised pricing, hidden fees, reliability data, and the quality of features like channels and internet speeds. The winner of Best Bang for Your Buck delivers high value at the right price.
Editor’s Choice
Best of the Best Award winners might come with all the bells and whistles or get you a lot of value for your money, but what services do the TV and internet experts use? Every Editor’s Choice award goes to the services our expert editors choose for their own homes.
We rate services using editorial star ratings
You may have noticed that we provide editorial star ratings for every service and product we review on our site. What you probably don’t know is that we use a method called attributive star ratings, which gives us a kind of mad scientist aura. All our Young Frankenstein and Rocky Horror Picture Show love aside, attributive star ratings are quite easy to understand.
Editorial star rating categories and scales
Bang for your buck
(way too expensive) 1 —– 2 —– 3 (okay for the price) —– 4 —– 5 (excellent for the price)
Reliability/user experience
(frequent issues) 1 —– 2 —– 3 (some issues) —– 4 —– 5 (no issues)
Features
(only essentials) 1 —– 2 —– 3 (some advanced) —– 4 —– 5 (advanced)
Customer satisfaction
(all negative) 1 —– 2 —– 3 (mixed) —– 4 —– 5 (all positive)
We do hands-on testing
In addition to surveys and independent data analysis, we test most of the services and products featured on our site in order to collect qualitative data.
This helps us determine what to expect from a service or product by evaluating everything from user interfaces to signal strength in real-time.
Our editors research and fact-check
Even though we like to have a little fun and get a little sassy (Sophia Petrillo from The Golden Girls would be proud), our work is always fair and ethical.
That’s why our team of writers, editors, and compliance specialists ensures that all pricing, contract information, features, and relevant information is up to date.
We also fact-check claims and gut-check editorial insights so that our readers get a more complete understanding of the services and products on our site.
