Executive Summary
4.7 million subscribers to service bundles. 4/5P offers the most used
At the end of 2023, the number of subscribers to bundled services totalled 4.7 million (+114 thousand or +2.5% compared to last year). The growth is mainly related to 4/5P offers (+144 thousand or +5.9%).
4/5P offers were the most used with 2.6 million subscribers (55.4% of all bundle subscribers), followed by 3P offers (with 1.7 million subscribers, 35.7%).
Standalone offers accounted for 68.0% of mobile accesses and 14.9% of fixed accesses
Standalone, single-play or 1P offers, i.e. offers not sold as a bundle, accounted for 68.0% of mobile accesses and 14.9% of fixed accesses. It is estimated that in July 2023, residential standalone offers accounted for only 1% of all residential fixed broadband subscribers, 2% of all residential pay-TV subscribers and 4% of all residential fixed telephone subscribers.
13% of bundle subscribers were in the non-residential segment
According to the information reported by the four main electronic communications providers, around 13.0% of all bundle subscribers were in the non-residential segment at the end of the 2Q2023. 2P offers were more important for non-residential subscribers (24.3%) than for residential subscribers (6.4%).
Bundled revenue increased by 9.0% and unit revenue increased by 5.8%, the highest figures since 2016
In 2023, revenues from bundled services totalled EUR 2.04 billion (51.9% of total retail revenues from electronic communications), an increase of 9.0% compared to last year (the highest growth since 2016). Revenues from 4/5P offers accounted for 67.1% of total bundled revenues or 34.8% of total retail revenues.
The average monthly revenue per bundle subscriber (EUR 36.80 excluding VAT) also recorded the highest growth since 2016 (+5.8%). Average monthly revenue was EUR 45.27 for 4/5P offers (+4.8%) and EUR 28.84 for 3P offers (+5.2%).
Provider shares
In 2023, MEO was the operator with the largest share of subscribers to bundled services (41.6%), followed by Grupo NOS (35.1%), Vodafone (20.6%) and NOWO (2.7%). Compared with last year, MEO and Vodafone increased their share of subscribers (+0.4 p.p. and +0.2 p.p. respectively), while the shares of Grupo NOS and NOWO decreased (-0.4 p.p. and -0.2 p.p. respectively). In net terms, NOWO was the only one of the above operators to record a decrease in the number of bundle subscribers.
According to the type of offer, MEO had the highest share of subscribers in all types of offer: 2P (47.0%), 3P (39.6%) and 4/5P (42.0%).
MEO also had the highest share of revenues from bundled services (41.1%), followed by Grupo NOS (40.4%), Vodafone (16.9%) and NOWO (1.6%). Compared to last year, Grupo NOS and Vodafone increased their share of revenues (+0.2 p.p. and +0.1 p.p. respectively), while NOWO and MEO decreased their share (-0.2 p.p. and -0.1 p.p. respectively).
The level of concentration, as measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, remains high and increased slightly compared to last year. 4/5P offers registered the highest level of concentration. Overall, and by type of offer, the level of concentration has not changed significantly since the start of 2018.
