Portugal adds 44,000 pay TV subscribers in 3Q 2016

LISBON — According to Portugal’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), there were 3.639 million subscribers to subscription TV in the country at the end of the third quarter of 2016, 44,000 more than in the previous quarter, and an extra 159,000 (+4.6 percent) compared to the same point in 2015.

At the end of September, cable TV represented 36.8 percent of total subscribers, with DTH comprising 16.5 percent, and xDSL/IP making up 19.5 percent. Optical fibre (FTTH/B) continued to add share accounting for 27.1 percent of all subscribers.

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

                                                                           Quarterly      Annual
                           15Q1   15Q2   15Q3   15Q4   16Q1   16Q2   16Q3  variation   variation
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  ----------
Cable (Cabo)              1,360  1,354  1,353  1,347  1,345  1,341  1,341         -1  -12  -0.9%
DTH                         604    607    609    610    607    606    602         -4   -8  -1.2%
FTTH/B                      672    719    766    822    868    924    987         63  220  28.8%
xDSL/IP                     761    756    752    749    740    725    710        -15  -42  -5.5%
                          -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  ---------  ----------
Total                     3,397  3,436  3,480  3,528  3,560  3,595  3,639         44  159   4.6%

TV subscriber evolution by technology

Shares of subscription TV subscribers (Units: %)

                           15Q1    15Q2    15Q3    15Q4    16Q1    16Q2    16Q3
                         ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Grupo NOS                 43.7%   43.7%   43.7%   43.7%   43.8%   43.7%   43.5%
Grupo Altice*              5.9%   47.1%   41.0%   40.5%   40.1%   39.7%   39.4%
 MEO                          -   41.4%   41.0%   40.5%   40.1%   39.7%   39.4%
 Cabovisão                 5.9%    5.7%       -       -       -       -       -
Vodafone                   8.3%    9.1%    9.8%   10.5%   11.1%   11.7%   12.2%
PT Comunicações/MEO       41.8%       -       -       -       -       -       -
Cabovisão                     -       -    5.4%    5.1%    4.9%    4.8%    4.7%
Other providers            0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.2%    0.1%    0.1%    0.1%

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