Zon Multimedia’s share of Portugal’s pay-television market has dropped to less than 60 per cent for the first time as it lost subscribers to its former parent company.

Market leader Zon’s share declined to a 59.2 per cent in the third quarter from 60.8 per cent in the previous quarter. Portugal Telecom, the number two operator, boosted its share to 28.3 per cent from 26.5 perc ent. Lisbon- based Zon had 74.3 per cent of the market in the second quarter of 2008.

Portugal Telecom, the country’s biggest phone company, started its TV service in 2008 to compete with Zon, selling Internet and phone services alongside TV subscriptions. Portugal Telecom said it had 769,000 pay-TV clients at the end of the September.

Cabovisao, owned by Canada’s Cogeco Cable , saw its market share drop to 9.6 per cent from 9.8 per cent in the second quarter. Sonaecom’s share was unchanged at 1.2 per cent. The country’s total number of pay-TV clients rose 2.5 per cent from the prior quarter to 2.7 million.

Zon Multimedia was spun off from Portugal Telecom in November 2007.

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