Advanced Television

Portuguese pay-TV subs up to 2.2 million

November 24, 2008

From Branislav Pekic in RomeZon Multimédia remains the pay-TV market leader in Portugal, despite the fact that its market share dropped from 74.3 per cent to 71.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2008. According to the latest data from telecom market regulator Anacom, Cogeco-owned Cabovisão is second with a 13.5 per cent market share, followed by PT Comunicações with 9.5 per cent (the only operator which registered a growth – 5.4 per cent in 2007) and TV Tel (3.1 per cent).At the end of the period July-September 2008, there were a total of 2.2 million pay-TV subscribers in Portugal, up 3.5 per cent on the second quarter. Cable TV was responsible for the lions share – 1.49 million or 67.3 per cent of the total. The number of cable TV subscribers was down by 6,000 or 0.3 per cent on the previous quarter, but higher by 21,000 when compared to the third quarter of 2007.The drop in cable TV services was compensated by the increase of demand for TV reception via other technologies. In the third quarter, DTH grew 6.8 per cent to 561,000 clients or 25.3 per cent of the total pay-TV market. Other access technologies such as FWA and the public telecom network, responded for 7.4 per cent of the total pay-TV market, up 37.5 per cent on the previous quarter.Meanwhile, Zon Multimédia (the owner of pay-TV operator TV Cabo) has confirmed plans to invest E120-140 million over the coming years, but made clear that these figures could be reviewed if there is a deceleration of sales…………

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