Portugal: Pay-TV sees slowest growth since 2006
December 9, 2024
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
At the end of Q3 2024, 4.6 million subscribers accessed pay-TV services in Portugal, a 1.7 per cent increase year-on-year – the slowest growth since 2006.
According to data published by the National Communications Authority (Anacom), the pay-TV penetration rate reached 43.6 per cent, up from 43.4 per cent in Q2 2024.
Optical fibre (FTTH/B) accounted for 65.9 per cent of these subscribers, and was the sole driver of growth, reaching 3.1 million subscribers (+6 per cent). This is the lowest annual growth rate for FTTH/B since its introduction in 2007. The remaining subscribers were distributed as follows: cable TV (25.9 per cent), satellite TV (6.6 per cent), and ADSL (1.6 per cent).
The overwhelming majority of pay-TV subscribers opted for a bundled services offer, while only 1.9 per cent subscribed to pay-TV as a standalone service.
Residential subscribers accounted for 4.1 million subscribers (+1.5 per cent), while non-residential subscribers totaled 530,000 (11.4 per cent of the total).
At the end of September, Altice Portugal’s Meo had a 41.9 per cent (+0.4 per cent) pay-TV market share, followed by Grupo Nos with 36.1 per cent (-0.4 per cent), Vodafone with 19.3 per cent (+0.2 per cent), and Nowo with 2.6 per cent (-0.2 per cent).