ZON TV Cabo pay TV share drops below 50% in Portugal

Thursday, May 30th, 2013
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According to Portugal’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), there were 3.129 million subscribers to subscription TV in the country at the end of the 1st Quarter of 2013, seven thousand (+0.2 percent) more than in the previous quarter, and an extra 97 thousand (3.2 percent) compared with the end of the first quarter of 2012.

At the end of March, cable TV represented 46.2 percent of total subscribers, while DTH comprised 20.7 percent, and xDSL comprised 19.9 percent. Optical fibre (FTTH/B) accounted for 13.2 percent of all subscribers.

The total number of cable television service subscribers – around 1.446 million – was 10 thousand down on the previous quarter (-0.7 percent). The number of DTH subscribers stood at 646 thousand, 14 thousand fewer (-2.1 percent) than in the previous quarter, and 26 thousand fewer than at 1Q2012 (-3.8%). The number of subscribers to subscription TV via optical fibre (FTTH/B) increased by 5.2 percent in the quarter, 34.7% annually, reaching a total of 414 thousand.

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

                                                                   Quarterly     Annual
                                 12Q1   12Q2   12Q3   12Q4   13Q1  variation  variation
                                -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  ---------
Cable                           1,466  1,470  1,459  1,456  1,446      -0.7%      -1.4%
DTH                               672    668    671    660    646      -2.1%      -3.8%
FTTH                              307    341    370    394    414       5.2%      34.7%
Other technologies (xDSL, FWA)    587    599    607    612    623       1.7%       6.0%
Total                           3,032  3,079  3,108  3,122  3,129       0.2%       3.2%

Source: ICP-ANACOM

The ZON/TV Cabo Group continues to have the largest, though declining, share of subscription TV subscribers (49.7 percent). PT Comunicações (PTC) and Cabovisão follow with shares of 39.9 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.

Shares of subscription TV subscribers (Units: %)

                             12Q1    12Q2    12Q3    12Q4    13Q1
                           ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Grupo ZON/TV Cabo          52.20%  51.42%  50.59%  50.22%  49.74%
  ZON TV Cabo Portugal     48.59%  47.88%  47.10%  46.77%  46.30%
  ZON TV Cabo Açoreana      1.59%   1.54%   1.50%   1.46%   1.44%
  ZON TV Cabo Madeirense    2.02%   2.01%   1.99%   1.99%   2.00%
PT Comunicações            36.63%  37.56%  38.55%  39.19%  39.88%
Cabovisão                   8.52%   8.34%   8.13%   7.84%   7.59%
Vodafone                    1.30%   1.33%   1.36%   1.38%   1.45%
Optimus (ex-Sonaecom)       1.21%   1.20%   1.19%   1.17%   1.18%
Other providers             0.16%   0.17%   0.19%   0.22%   0.19%

Source: ICP-ANACOM