Advanced Television

Portugal: Over 3m pay-TV subs

August 30, 2013

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

In late June 2013, there were about 3.14 million pay-TV subscribers in Portugal, an increase of 14,000 subscribers on the previous quarter and 63,000 more than in the same period of 2012.

During Q2 2013, offerings supported by the public telephone network (xDSL) and optical fibre (FTTH/B) grew respectively by 21,000 and 20,000 new subscribers. In contrast, during this period, the number of subscribers to the cable TV and DTH services decreased by 0.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively, corresponding to less than 13,000 and 14,000 subscribers for each of these services.

Analysing the distribution of subscribers by technology type, the cable TV distribution service accounted for 45.6 per cent of total subscribers, xDSL 20.5 per cent, DTH 20.1 per cent, and FTTH/B 13.8 per cent.

In Q2 2013, three out of four pay-TV subscribers obtained their service as part of a packaged offer, representing a growth of 1.7 per cent in the quarter. About 15.4 per cent were double play and 59.7 per cent triple/quadruple/quintuple play customers.

The Zon/TV Cabo Group continued to have the highest share of pay-TV subscribers, with 49 per cent. It is followed by PT Comunicações (PTC) and Cabovisão with 40.4 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively. Vodafone Portugal had 1.8 per cent and Optimus 1.2 per cent.

From January to June 2013, total revenues for the pay-TV service totalled €640.4 million, which corresponds to a 3.6 per cent increase over the same period in 2012.

ARPU fell €0.80/month or 2.2 per cent year on year, to €35.20 (for packages including pay-TV).

At the end of Q2 2013, about half of pay-TV households had over 80 channels and 18.8 per cent had access to premium channels, 5.4 percentage points less than in Q2 2012.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Markets, Pay TV, Research