Portugal adds 28,000 pay TV subscribers in 1Q 2016

Tuesday, June 21st, 2016 

LISBON — According to Portugal’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), there were 3.545 million subscribers to subscription TV in the country at the end of the first quarter of 2016, 28,000 more than in the previous quarter, and an extra 150,000 (+4.4 percent) compared to the same point in 2015.

At the end of March, cable TV represented 38.0 percent of total subscribers, with DTH comprising 17.1 percent, and xDSL/IP making up 20.8 percent. Optical fibre (FTTH/B) continued to add share accounting for 24.1 percent of all subscribers.

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

                                                             Quarterly      Annual
                           15Q1   15Q2   15Q3   15Q4   16Q1  variation   variation
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  ----------
Cable (Cabo)              1,360  1,354  1,353  1,347  1,345         -2  -15  -1.1%
DTH                         604    607    609    610    607         -3    3   0.5%
FTTH/B                      671    715    761    812    854         42  184  27.4%
xDSL/IP                     760    755    751    748    738         -9  -21  -2.8%
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  ----------
Total                     3,395  3,431  3,473  3,517  3,545         28  150   4.4%

Source: ANACOM

Shares of subscription TV subscribers (Units: %)

                           15Q1    15Q2    15Q3    15Q4    16Q1
                         ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Grupo NOS                 43.8%   43.7%   43.7%   43.8%   44.0%
Grupo Altice*                 -   47.1%   41.1%   40.7%   40.2%
 MEO                          -   41.5%   41.1%   40.7%   40.2%
 Cabovisão                 6.0%    5.7%       -       -       -
PT Comunicações/MEO       41.9%       -       -       -       -
Cabovisão                     -       -    5.4%    5.1%    4.9%
Vodafone                   8.2%    9.0%    9.6%   10.2%   10.7%
Other providers            0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.1%

* Altice was required to sell Cabovisão by the competition authorities in order to receive approval for its takeover of MEO.

More: Statistical Report [pt]