This Is America’s Worst Streaming Service

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Dec 28, 12:41PM EST · Published Dec 28, 7:00AM EST

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Premium video streaming is in trouble. Subscriber growth seems to be waning, and customer satisfaction is no longer as high as it used to be. America’s worst streaming service is Crackle.

The growth of the wildly successful Disney+ has slowed considerably, Walt Disney Company noted in its recent financial report. While Disney+ has 118.1 million subscribers — among the largest in the world — new subscriber additions have almost disappeared, the company said. The company blames the problem on fewer people staying home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Netflix, the industry leader, recently posted a similar slowdown.

There are two challenges the industry faces. The first is that the decline in COVID-19 cases — before omicron — has allowed people to return to theaters. The other challenge is an increase in competition. More and more large media companies have decided to launch services of their own. The industry has become tremendously fragmented. Research demonstrates that the average American subscribes to four services. However, many more than that are available.

The quality of streaming services has also become an issue. The widely followed American Customer Satisfaction Index looked at customer satisfaction of streaming services. (This is where you can stream the best classic shows right now.)

To find America’s worst streaming service, 24/7 Tempo reviewed ACSI’s 2020-2021 Telecommunications Study, which includes streaming services. The study is based on interviews with 37,907 customers conducted between April 1, 2020 and March 29, 2021. Services are ranked on a scale from zero to 100.

Customer satisfaction from streaming services continues to be higher than from other telecom services, but that edge has started to disappear. The authors of the study commented: “While consumers still prefer streaming above all other telecom industries, its stranglehold on the segment is slipping as its lead over the next closest industry shrinks to just 3 points.”

Some of the results are unexpected. The average service received a score of 74. Industry leader Netflix scored 75. The other leader in subscribers, Amazon Prime Video, scored 74. Amazon’s video service is part of its Prime paid program for customers, which includes other perks such as free shipping of products bought at Amazon.com.

The streaming service with the best customer satisfaction score is Disney+ at 78. While there is no exact reason given for this, Disney+ does have a tremendous movie library from Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel. (These are the best comedy movies available to stream right now.)

At the very bottom of the list is Crackle, a service few people have heard of. It scored 68. It is owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and was once a part of Sony.

Click here for the worst and best streaming services

20. Disney+
> ACSI score: 78/100

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19. Microsoft Store
> ACSI score: 77/100

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18. Twitch (Amazon)
> ACSI score: 76/100

17. HBO (AT&T)
> ACSI score: 75/100

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16. HBO Max (AT&T)
> ACSI score: 75/100

15. Hulu
> ACSI score: 75/100

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14. Netflix
> ACSI score: 75/100

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13. YouTube TV (Google)
> ACSI score: 75/100

12. Amazon Prime Video
> ACSI score: 74/100

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11. Apple TV App
> ACSI score: 74/100

10. Google Play
> ACSI score: 74/100

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9. Starz
> ACSI score: 74/100

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8. CBS All Access (ViacomCBS)
> ACSI score: 73/100

7. Vudu (Comcast)
> ACSI score: 73/100

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6. Apple TV+
> ACSI score: 72/100

5. AT&T TV NOW
> ACSI score: 72/100

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4. Showtime (ViacomCBS)
> ACSI score: 72/100

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3. Sling TV (DISH Network)
> ACSI score: 72/100

2. Peacock (Comcast)
> ACSI score: 71/100

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1. Crackle
> ACSI score: 68/100

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.