Portugal adds 36,000 pay TV subscribers in 2Q 2015

According to Portugal’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), there were 3.43 million subscribers to subscription TV in the country at the end of the second quarter of 2015, 36,000 (+1.1 percent) more than in the [revised] previous quarter, and an extra 182,000 (+5.6 percent) compared to the same point in 2014.

At the end of June, cable TV represented 39.5 percent of total subscribers, with DTH comprising 17.7 percent, and xDSL/IP making up 22 percent. Optical fibre (FTTH/B) accounted for 20.8 percent of all subscribers.

The total number of cable television service subscribers – around 1.354 million – was 6 thousand down on the [revised] previous quarter (-0.5 percent). The number of DTH subscribers stood at 607 thousand, 3 thousand more (+0.5 percent) than in the previous quarter, and 15 thousand up over the year (+2.6%). xDSL was down 5 thousand (-0.7 percent) in the quarter, though still gained 34 thousand over the year (+4.7 percent).

The fastest growth was in subscribers to subscription TV via optical fibre (FTTH/B) which increased by 6.6 percent in the quarter and 30.1 percent annually, reaching a total of 715 thousand.

Subscription television service subscribers by technology (Units: 1000 subscribers; %)

                                                             Quarterly     Annual
                           14Q2   14Q3   14Q4   15Q1   15Q2  variation  variation
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  ---------
Cable                     1,386  1,376  1,367  1,360  1,354      -0.5%      -2.3%        
DTH                         592    594    601    604    607       0.5%       2.6%
FTTH/B                      550    587    627    671    715       6.6%      30.1%
xDSL                        720    738    756    759    754      -0.7%       4.7%
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  ---------
Total                     3,248  3,294  3,350  3,394  3,430       1.1%       5.6%

With the Acquisition of MEO on the 2nd of June 2015, Altice became the largest pay TV provider in Portugal with a share of 47.1%. The NOS Group are in second place with a share of 43.7 percent and Vodafone follows in third place on 9.0 percent. Vodafone continues to gain share at the expense of the other providers.

Shares of subscription TV subscribers (Units: %)

                           14Q2    14Q3    14Q4    15Q1    15Q2
                         ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Grupo NOS                 45.3%   44.5%   44.0%   43.8%   43.7%
Grupo Altice                                              47.1%
 PT Comunicações/MEO      41.9%   42.1%   42.2%   41.9%   41.4%
 Cabovisão                 6.7%    6.5%    6.2%    6.0%    5.7%
Vodafone                   5.9%    6.7%    7.5%    8.2%    9.0%
Other providers            0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%