DirecTV, FiOS Taking Share

DirecTV and Verizon's FiOS (where it is available) are getting 58 percent of the customers as consumers in a February 2008 survey describe the choices they will make in buying new video service providers.

Keep in mind, these are customers who already have decided to make a change. And as the incumbent, a cable operator is going to be hit disproportionately by customers who want to make a change.

The survey also suggests about four percent of respondents are leaving another service provider for Comcast, for example.

Considering that DirecTV is operating as a "single play" for the most part, it is doing quite well, though some percentage of its new additions come from telephone company customers buying DirecTV as the "video" component of a virtual triple play or dual play.