If Apple ever works out the details work an a la carte television viewing/subscription service, it can't come too soon for many folks.

A new research report published by Temkin Group (http://www.temkingroup.com) rates the customer experience of 206 large companies across 18 industries. This is the second year that the research group has released these ratings.

The research, which is based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers in January 2012, includes ratings of 11 Internet service providers -- AOL, AT&T, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, EarthLink, MSN, Qwest, Road Runner, and Verizon - and 10 TV service providers: AT&T, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network/EchoStar, Optimum (iO)/Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon.

While the study rated 21 organizations across both the TV and Internet services space, only three companies received "okay" ratings: Bright House Networks (TV), Dish Network (TV), and Cablevision (Internet). Fifteen of the companies were rated "poor" and three received "very poor" ratings: Charter Communications (TV), Charter Communications (Internet), and EarthLink (Internet).

The average customer experience ratings for the TV services and Internet services industries placed them 16th and 17th, respectively, out of 18 industries in the study. The only companies to score lower were health plans. Out of all 206 companies in the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings, EarthLink and Charter Communications were the two lowest-rated companies and eight of the bottom 19 companies came from these two industries.

"Terrible customer experience remains an epidemic within the Internet services and TV services industries," says Bruce Temkin, author of the report and managing partner of the Temkin Group.

The group analyzed the changes between 2011 and 2012 and found that customer experience made a modest improvement in the TV services industry, but had a slight decline with Internet service providers. Seven companies saw their Temkin Experience Ratings increase by more than five percentage points: Cablevision (Internet), Comcast (Internet), AOL (Internet), Dish Network (TV), Bright House Networks (TV), DirecTV (TV), and Comcast (TV). Only one company had a decline of more than five percentage points: Cox Communications (Internet).