Vodafone continues to gain pay TV share in Portugal

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015
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According to Portugal’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), there were 3.404 million subscribers to subscription TV in the country at the end of the first quarter of 2015, 54,000 (+1.6 percent) more than in the previous quarter, and an extra 194,000 (+6.1 percent) compared to the same point in 2014.

At the end of March, cable TV represented 40.2 percent of total subscribers, while DTH comprised 17.7 percent, and xDSL comprised 22.3 percent. Optical fibre (FTTH/B) accounted for 19.7 percent of all subscribers.

The total number of cable television service subscribers – around 1.370 million – was 3 thousand up on the previous quarter (+0.2 percent). The number of DTH subscribers stood at 604 thousand, 3 thousand more (+0.5 percent) than in the previous quarter, adding 6 thousand over the year (+0.9%). xDSL was also up 3 thousand (+0.4 percent) in the quarter, gaining 54 thousand over the year (+7.8 percent).

The fastest growth was in subscribers to subscription TV via optical fibre (FTTH/B) which increased by 7.0 percent in the quarter and 31.2 percent annually, reaching a total of 671 thousand.

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

                                                               Quarterly        Annual
                           14Q1   14Q2   14Q3   14Q4   15Q1    variation     variation
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----------  ------------
Cable                     1,396  1,386  1,376  1,367  1,370         0.2%         -1.8%
DTH                         598    592    594    601    604         0.5%          0.9%
FTTH/B                      511    550    587    627    671         7.0%         31.2%
xDSL                        705    720    738    756    759         0.4%          7.8%
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----------  ------------
Total                     3,210  3,248  3,294  3,350  3,404         1.6%          6.1%

The NOS Group continues to have the largest, though consistently declining, share of subscription TV subscribers (43.9 percent). PT Comunicações (PTC) and Vodafone follow with shares of 41.7 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively. Vodafone continues to gain share at the expense of the other providers.

Shares of subscription TV subscribers (Units: %)

                           14Q1    14Q2    14Q3    14Q4    15Q1
                         ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Grupo NOS                 46.4%   45.3%   44.5%   44.0%   43.9%
PT Comunicações/MEO       41.6%   41.9%   42.1%   42.2%   41.7%
Vodafone                   5.0%    5.9%    6.7%    7.5%    8.2%
Cabovisão                  6.9%    6.7%    6.5%    6.2%    5.9%
Other providers            0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%