The subscription television service (TVS) ended 2014 with approximately 3.35 million subscribers in Portugal, representing the addition of 179 thousand new customers over the year (an increase of 5.7 percent). Growth reported in the 4th quarter was 1.7 percent.
The growth was driven by offers based on optical fibre (FTTH/B), whose subscribers increased by 32.6 percent last year. At the end of 2014, optical fibre was being used by 18.7 percent of subscription television service customers in Portugal - and is the technology that has seen most growth - surpassing DTH (satellite), as used by 17.9 per percent of the service's customers.
At the end of the year, cable was still the main technology used for accessing the service, representing 40.8 percent of total subscribers, followed by xDSL with 22.6 percent.
Grupo NOS retains the highest share of STV subscribers, with 44 percent. PTC/MEO, Vodafone and Cabovisão follow with shares of 42.2 percent, 7.5 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. Vodafone was the provider that added the largest number of subscribers in net terms during the fourth quarter, as it has each quarter since the end of 2013.
Total revenues for the STV service (stand-alone and bundles that comprise STV) totalled 1.349 billion euros in 2014 (9.8 percent more than in 2013), whereas triple/quadruple/quintuple-play bundles were the main drivers of revenue growth.
Among households with subscription television, 67.2 percent had more than 80 channels (an increase of 8.6 percentage points year-on-year).
At the end of 2014, about 18.6 percent of homes with STV had access to premium channels, a decline of 0.7 percentage points versus the same period of 2013, but 1.6 percentage points more than in the previous quarter.
Use of the different features of the STV service continues to increase. In 4th quarter 2014, about 62 percent of subscribers used at least one of the features available. About 46 percent of subscribers used the TV recording service and the restart TV service (to restart/re-watch programmes), while 47 and 40 percent, respectively, used the programming guide and the pause TV service. The videoclube/video-on-demand service was used by 16 percent of subscribers.
Consult the statistical report:
- Subscription television service - 4th quarter 2014 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1349216
