Fibre continues to add share in Portugal in 3Q 2015

According to Portugal’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), there were 3.473 million subscribers to subscription TV in the country at the end of the third quarter of 2015, 42,000 more than in the previous quarter, and an extra 179,000 (+5.4 percent) compared to the same point in 2014.

At the end of September, cable TV represented 38.9 percent of total subscribers, with DTH comprising 17.5 percent, and xDSL/IP making up 21.6 percent. Optical fibre (FTTH/B) overtook cable in the quarter to account for 21.9 percent of all subscribers.

The total number of cable television service subscribers – around 1.353 million – was one thousand down on the previous quarter. The number of DTH subscribers stood at 609 thousand, two thousand more than in the previous quarter, and 16 thousand up over the year (+2.6%). xDSL was down four thousand in the quarter, though still gained 13 thousand over the year (+1.7 percent).

The fastest growth was in subscriptions to TV via optical fibre (FTTH/B) which increased by 45,500 in the quarter acccounting for more than all of the increase in the total number of subscribers during the period. FTTH/B grew 29.5 percent annually (+173,500), reaching a total of 761 thousand.

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

                                                             Quarterly       Annual
                           14Q3   14Q4   15Q1   15Q2   15Q3  variation    variation
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  -----------
Cable (Cabo)              1,376  1,367  1,360  1,354  1,353         -1  -23 (-1.7%)
DTH                         594    601    604    607    609          2   16  (2.6%)
FTTH/B                      587    627    671    715    761         45  174 (29.5%)
xDSL/IP                     738    756    760    755    751         -4   13  (1.7%)
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  -----------
Total                     3,295  3,351  3,395  3,431  3,473         42  179 (+5.4%)

With the divestment of Cabovisão in September, Altice dropped to second place in terms of subscribers with a share of 41.1%. The NOS Group returned to first place with a share of 43.7 percent. Vodafone continued to add market share ending with 9.6 percent of all subscribers.

Shares of subscription TV subscribers (Units: %)

                           14Q3    14Q4    15Q1    15Q2   15Q3
                         ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Grupo NOS                 44.5%   44.0%   43.8%   43.7%   43.7%
Grupo Altice*                 -       -       -   47.1%   41.1%
 MEO                          -       -       -   41.5%   41.1%
 Cabovisão                 6.5%    6.2%    6.0%    5.7%       -
PT Comunicações/MEO       42.1%   42.2%   41.9%       -       -
Cabovisão                     -       -       -       -    5.4%
Vodafone                   6.7%    7.5%    8.2%    9.0%    9.6%
Other providers            0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%

* Altice was required to sell Cabovisão by the competition authorities in order to receive approval for its takeover of MEO.