Vodafone Portugal’s attempt to buy Portuguese telecom operator Nowo, first announced in September 2022, has been thwarted by Portugal’s Competition Authority (AdC). The AdC issued a draft decision opposing the deal due to concerns it would stifle competition in the telecommunications sector. The AdC believes Nowo puts pressure on existing operators to offer competitive prices. […]

The Autoridade da Concorrência (AdC), Portugal’s Competition Authority, has launched an in-depth investigation into Vodafone Portugal’s acquisition of local quad-play provider Nowo, expressing competition concerns. The antitrust authority justified its decision with the fact that, “given the evidence so far, it cannot be excluded that the merger will significantly impede effective competition in the national […]

Portugal ended 2022 with 4.5 million pay-TV subscribers, an increase of 3.1 per cent on the previous year and good for a 96.4 per cent penetration rate for the service (+2.7 per cent). According to figures released by the National Communications Authority (Anacom), FTTH technology accounted for 2.7 million subscribers or 60.8 per cent of […]

The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) has ruled that the audiovisual tax, collected from pay-TV operators in Portugal, is not contrary to EU Law. In its judgment, the Court of Justice established that the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) “does not preclude national legislation which imposes a charge intended […]

Portuguese media group Media Capital has rolled out its streaming platform, TVI Player, to subscribers of the four main telecom operators in Portugal. The dedicated TVI Player app has been added to the set-top boxes of Meo (Altice Portugal), NOS, Vodafone Portugal and Nowo. All content on the OTT service is available throughout Portugal at […]

Vodafone Portugal has entered into an agreement with Llorca JVCO Limited, shareholder of Másmóvil Ibercom, SA, for the purchase of Cabonitel SA, owner of Portugal’s  fourth largest multiplay operator Nowo Communications. Nowo has some 250,000 mobile service subscribers and 140,000 fixed access customers (pay-TV and broadband) in approximately 1 million homes covered by its communications […]

SPI/FilmBox continues its European expansion with a new deal for the drama hub Dizi in Portugal with telco Nowo – which already carries multiple other SPI brands.“Our Dizi brand, which currently boasts a catalogue of some of the best Turkish drama series, has been making waves globally since its launch. The increasing demand for the […]

The Portuguese Association of Electronic Telecommunications Operators (APRITEL) has criticised the proposed increase in the annual tax levied from pay-TV operators. The draft State Budget for 2022 provides that pay-TV operators such as NOS, Meo, Vodafone Portugal and Nowo will now pay a semi-annual fee of €2 per subscriber, or €4/year. In a statement to […]

One in four Portuguese (24 per cent) over the age of 15 subscribe to a streaming platform, according to the first edition of Marktest’s BStream study on SVoD services. The study analysed services operating in Portugal (Apple TV, Disney+, HBO, MEO Filmes e Séries, Netflix, NOS Play, OPTO SIC, Amazon Prime Video), as well as […]

Portugal had 4.3 million pay-TV subscribers at the end of the first half of 2021, or 3.5 per cent more than in the same period last year. This accounts for a 94.2 per cent penetration rate for the service, up 5 per cent year-on-year, according to the Anacom, the Portuguese telecom sector regulator. The major […]