Advanced Television

Portugal pay-TV subs at 3.6m

December 20, 2016

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Portugal ended the third quarter of 2016 with more than 3.63 million pay-TV subscribers, representing a growth of 44,000 customers (+1.2 per cent) on the previous quarter and 159,000 (+4.6 per cent) more than one year earlier, according to stats from Anacom, Portugal’s National Communications Authority.

Growth was driven by fibre optic offerings (FTTH/FTTB), whose subscriber numbers increased by 63,000 (+6.8 per cent) on the previous quarter and 220,000 year-on-year (+28.8 per cent), to 987,000 (27.1 per cent of total subscribers).

The cable TV distribution service was available to 1.34 million subscribers (36.8 per cent), while xDSL and DTH had 710,000 (19.5 per cent) and 602,000 (16.5 per cent) subscribers, respectively.

An estimated 89.3 per cent of pay-TV subscribers have the service as part of an integrated service package.

NOS Group continues as market leader with 43.5 per cent of subscribers (43.7 per cent in Q2 2016), followed by Meo with 39.4 per cent (39.7 per cent), Vodafone Portugal with 12.2 per cent and Nowo/Cabovisão with 4.7 per cent (4.8 per cent). Vodafone was the provider that, in net terms, added the most subscribers in Q3 2016 (+0.5 per cent on Q2 2016).

Total revenue from the pay-TV service (stand-alone and bundled) amounted to €1.34 billion (+8.6 per cent year-on-year).

About 16.2 per cent of pay-TV homes had access to premium channels, while 78.7 per cent had more than 80 TV channels. Also, 3.2 per cent of individuals aged 10 or over subscribed to video streaming on demand services like Netflix, Fox Play and NPlay.

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