As AT&T and Verizon attempt to try and lure customers away from cable operators, they’ve focused on matching features instead of trying to undercut cable prices. While they occasionally offer some tasty bundle promotions, they’ve largely refused to engage in price warfare, and in fact have increased TV prices several times since entering the market. A new survey by Heavy Reading suggests that customers really are generally happy with features but are seriously drawn to lower cost offerings — particularly in a tight economy.

The problem for telcos and other TV service providers is that they’re hoping to make their services stand out with features other than price, and preferably features that would tempt people to pay extra. But consumers don’t seem particularly unhappy with any of the services they’re already getting, as they gave high satisfaction levels to their digital video recorder (DVR) and video-on-demand (VOD) services.

Cable and phone companies have had the luxury of engaging in non-price competition. Will a struggling economy force a change?
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