Portugal pay-TV subs up 5%
March 10, 2016
By Branislav Pekic in Rome
The number of pay-TV subscribers in Portugal increased by 5 per cent last year compared to 2014, to 3.52 million, an above-average rise in the last five years (4.6 per cent).
According to Portugal’s National Communications Authority (Anacom), the pay-TV sector added over 167,000 new customers in 2015, while the penetration rate reached 86.6 per cent (+4.1 per cent on 2014).
The FTTH/B technology accounted for most of the growth, adding 185,100 subscribers, and ending the year with 23.1 per cent of total pay-TV subscribers (+4.4 per cent y/y).
Cable continues as the main pay-TV distribution technology with 38.3 per cent of the total (-1.4 per cent y/y). xDSL dropped to third place with 21.3 per cent (+1.2 per cent), while DTH had 17.4 per cent (+1.7 per cent).
Around 87.8 per cent of subscribers had the pay-TV service as part of a bundled offer. An estimated 78.1 per cent of customers had access to over 80 TV channels, while 18.6 per cent subscribed to premium channels. Revenues from the pay-TV service (stand-alone and bundled) reached €1.66 billion.
NOS remains as pay-TV market leader with a 43.8 per cent share of subscribers, followed by Meo (40.7 per cent), Vodafone Portugal (10.2 per cent), Cabovisão (5.1 per cent) and others (0.2 per cent). Significantly, Vodafone Portugal was the only operator to increase its market share (+2.7 per cent).