HBO to launch in Portugal in Q1 2019
November 19, 2018
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
HBO is planning to start operations in Portugal during the first quarter of 2019, reports local publication Meios e Publicidade.
The pay-TV channel has opened an office in Lisbon and has already contracted several managers for its Portuguese operations.
Patrícia Reis, a former marketing director at Disney, has been named VP marketing of HBO Portugal. Inês Martins de Almeida is the distribution sales manager, and Cláudia Cristóvão is coordinator of social media.
In Portugal, HBO will compete with Netflix which has been present in the local market for the past three years, via a partnership with Vodafone.
Earlier this year, Tom Nielsen, VP of public relations for HBO Europe, said that HBO will make available its OTT platform that gives access to content from its channels in Portugal. The company already has a content partnership in the country with pay-TV channel TV Séries (owned by operator NOS).
In neighbouring Spain, HBO is available on subscription exclusively to Vodafone customers.