AT&T U-verse has something new to brag about, standing out as the top television provider in the South and West according to the latest JD Power survey.

U-verse finished first in the South and West regions, that according to the 2009 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Study by JD Power and Associates. AT&T has a large presence in the former Bell South region which stretches from Virginia down through Florida. U-verse is also being deployed extensively out West in California.

The news is good for AT&T U-verse, which has been criticized on message boards and U-verse forums by some for lengthy installations and freezing picture problems. Better yet, U-verse topped Direct TV, Dish Network and several cable TV companies in the survey. Will the latest news help U-verse in the battle for cable TV subscribers?

Possibly. Getting customers to switch away from cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner is difficult, especially if customers are already tied in to a triple play bundle. Oftentimes, the customer will put up with higher prices, as long as things are running smoothly and they are happy with the content being offered by their cable or satellite TV company.

AT&T U-verse continues to expand into new markets, making DIRECTV and Dish Network take note. Last month, U-verse began offering service in the Baton Rouge market, and just this week began offering U-verse TV in Middle Tennessee market including Nashville.

Telco TV was strong overall in the JD power survey. Verizon Fios topped rankings in the East region, and finished second behind U-verse in the South and West regions. Verizon is on a similar mission, enhancing their network like AT&T to offer triple play bundles of service to compete with cable TV companies.

Direct TV finished a close 3rd behind U-verse TV and Verizon Fios in most regions. Dish Network and different various cable companies like Charter, Comcast, Mediacom, Suddenlink and Time Warner brought up the rear in the four different regions. Overall, customers reported better satisfaction and fewer outages compared to the 2008 television survey.

AT&T U-verse became the latest pay television operator to pick up the NFL RedZone channel for the upcoming season.

That is good news for U-verse TV customers who don’t have access to the NFL Sunday Ticket package because it is an exclusive of DIRECTV. The satellite TV provider offers the original Red Zone channel as part of the Superfan package. The NFL created their own version of the RedZone channel for the 2009 season. The NFL edition has picked up by Dish Network, Comcast and Verizon before today’s addition by U-verse.

The NFL RedZone channel will be modeled after the DIRECTV edition moving from game to game, generally when one team is inside the opponents 20 yard line. Action will be supplemented by tons of highlight film and the latest statistics for fantasy football managers.

AT&T U-verse announced that it will position the RedZone channel on a premium HD tier. No doubt Uverse is trying to grow both their HD subscriber base and premium tier subscription service. If you have AT&T Uverse and you want to get the RedZone channel you will first have to be an HD subscriber which is $10 for most packages. Only the top tier package, the U-450 includes high definition in the bundle price.

Then, you will have to order the U-verse HD Premium Tier which is an additional $5 per month. Current channels in the Premium Tier are MGM HD, Smithsonian channel HD, Universal HD, Palladia, and Shorts HD. The NFL RedZone will be added to this lineup on channel 1629. Keep in mind though that the NFL RedZone channel will only operate for about 7 hours on Sunday afternoons during football season. One option for hardcore NFL fans could be to add the Premium Tier during the season, then drop it come January if you don’t watch any of the other Premium Tier HD channels.

The new NFL RedZone channel makes its debut this Sunday, September 13th.