The subscription television service in Portugal continues to grow, mainly due to offers based on optical fibre, which is already the second largest support network for the subscription TV service. With 761,000 customers in the third quarter, 29.5% more than in the same period of 2014, optical fibre is responsible for 21.9% of total subscribers. At the end of September, the service had 3.47 million customers, 5.4% more than in the same period of 2014.
Cable continues to be the service's main support network, representing 38.9% of total subscribers. Meanwhile, xDSL, which was overtaken by optical fibre, is used by 21.6% of customers and DTH, as the other technology that has seen recent growth, was used by 17.5% of all subscribers.
During the period being reported, 85.5 out of every 100 households watched subscription television, compared to 82.3 out of every 100 households a year earlier.
As at the end of September, 87% of subscribers to the subscription TV service received their service as part of a bundle. Triple-play, quadruple-play and quintuple-play bundles were the drivers of growth in revenues from the subscription television service, which reached 1.235 billion euros up to September (bundles and stand-alone), 27.1% more than in the same period of 2014.
Grupo NOS had the largest share of subscription TV subscribers (43.7%) in September, followed by MEO (41.1%), Vodafone (9.6%) and Cabovisão (5.4%). Vodafone was the provider which, in net terms, gained the most subscribers in the 3rd quarter.
At the end of September, about 15.5% of homes with subscription TV had access to premium channels (a decline of 1.5 percentage points from the previous quarter), while 71.9% had more than 80 channels (an increase of 7.9 percentage points year-on-year).
Use of the different features of the subscription TV service declined by one percentage point in 3Q15, with around 67% of subscribers using at least one of the features available. Automatic recordings were the most commonly used service.
Consult the statistical report:
- Subscription television service - 3rd quarter 2015 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1374977
