Portugal adds 128,000 pay-TV subs in Q1
June 8, 2023
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Pay-TV services in Portugal added 128,000 subscribers in Q1 2023 (+2.9 per cent year-on-year), taking the total to 4.5 million.
The National Communications Authority (Anacom) largely attributed the growth to the increasing popularity of FTTH technology, which added 244,000 new accesses (+9.6 per cent) in the quarter and now accounts for 2.8 million pay-TV subscribers.
At the end of March 2023, FTTH corresponded to 61.7 per cent of total pay-TV subscribers, followed by cable TV (27.8 per cent); satellite TV – DTH (7.8 per cent); and ADSL (2.7 per cent). The penetration rate for pay-TV services reached 97 per cent (+2.7% on Q1 2022).
The number of residential subscribers to pay-TV services was 4 million (89 per cent of the total), growing by 103,000 (+2.6 per cent), while the remaining 497,000 were non-residential (+5.5 per cent).
Market leader Meo (Altice Portugal) had the highest share of subscribers (41.2 per cent), ahead of NOS (36.9 per cent), Vodafone (18.9 per cent) and Nowo (2.9 per cent).
Meo (+0.5 per cent) and Vodafone (+0.4 per cent) both registered growth in the reference period, while NOS (-0.7 per cent) and Nowo (-0.3 per cent) both saw a drop in subscriber numbers.