Penetration rate of cable television distribution service is at 13.2%

The percentage of subscribers to the cable television distribution service in the Portuguese population stood at 13.2% in the third quarter of 2006, the same figure of the previous quarter.

Madeira (27.7%) and Alentejo (4.9%) are the regions with the highest and lowest cable television distribution service penetration, respectively.

In the same period, cable television distribution service subscribers - 1,4 million - stood for 27.9% of all Portuguese households.

All households that were cabled during the quarter, by all cable TV distribution operators, reached 28 thousand - 0.7% more than in the previous quarter - placing the total number of cabled households by all operators, in about 3,9 million. Lisbon continues to be the area with most cabled households, 45%.

At the end of September, the cable television distribution service had about 1,4 million subscribers, slightly less than in the previous quarter. Compared to a year before, there was a 0.1% growth, which, in absolute terms, corresponds to about one thousand new subscribers.

The quarterly decrease in the number of cable television subscribers is directly influenced by the same evolution in the number of clients of one of the main operators. This operator justifies the decrease with the current economic situation. However, it is considered that this may be a reflection of the competition environment existing in the broadband market and of the introduction of new offers of broadband Internet access services. This is so because some users of the cable television distribution service had the Internet as the main motive to subscribe this service.

In the quarter under analysis, the Autonomous Region of the Azores was the area with the highest quarterly growth in the number of subscribers (1.6%). The Autonomous Region of Madeira grew 1.2%.

During the period under analysis, the Lisbon area continued to concentrate half of all cable television subscribers (50.4%).

The television distribution service using Direct To Home (DTH) technology had 403 thousand subscribers at the end of September, 5.3% more than in the previous quarter and 2.6% more than a year before. In absolute terms, and during the quarter under analysis, there were 20 thousand more subscribers.

Consult:

Quarterly reports by service http://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=277884