Pay TV subscriptions in Portugal near 4 million at mid-2019

ANACOM: Subscription TV reaches around 4 million subscribers

Penetration of the subscription TV signal distribution service reached 86 subscribers per 100 classic households at the end of the first half of 2019 (1H19), 1.7% up on the first half of 2018. At the end of the semester under review, there were around 4 million subscription TV subscribers, up 132,000 (+3.4%) over the same period of 2018.

The growth in the subscription TV service was due to fibre-based offerings (FTTH), which registered a further 298,000 subscribers over the first half of 2018, reflecting a growth of 20.2% to around 1.8 million of customers.

In this semester, FTTH continued to be the main form of access to this service (44.4% of total subscribers), followed by cable television (33.2%), Direct To Home – DTH technology (12%) and ADSL (10.4%).

Looking at the structure of the offer, the NOS Group had the highest subscriber share (40.5%), followed by MEO, Vodafone and NOWO, with shares of 39.6%, 15.8% and 4%, respectively. MEO and Vodafone were the providers which, in net terms, had the largest number of subscribers compared to the first half of 2018, with their shares increasing by 0.7% and 1.1%, respectively. On the other hand, there was a decrease in the shares of the NOS group (-1.4%) and NOWO (-0.4%).

Subscribers by technology

       1H2018  1H2019  YoY (%)
       ------  ------  -------
FTTH    1,471   1,769     20.2
Cable   1,344   1,324     -1.5
DTH       523     478     -8.7
ADSL      515     414    -19.5
       ------  ------  -------
Total   3,853   3,985      3.4

Unit: 1000 subscribers; %
Source: ANACOM