Pay TV in Portugal grows 4.1% YoY in 1H 2020

Wednesday, September 16th, 2020
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TV signal distribution service subscribed by 89.3% of households

  • Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM)

In the first semester of 2020 (1S2020), around 89.3% of households had the TV signal distribution service by subscription (TVS). 3.3 percentage points (p.p.) more than in the same period of the previous year.

The number of subscribers of this service reached 4.15 million, corresponding to 165 thousand more (+4.1%) than in the same period of the previous year. This was the largest annual growth in absolute and relative terms since 2016. This growth was due to the offers based on optical fibre (FTTH), which recorded 263 thousand subscribers more than in the same period of the previous year (+14.8%), surpassing two million accesses.

Optical fibre (FTTH) continues to be the main form of access to this service (49.0% of total subscribers), followed by cable television (31.9%), satellite (DTH) with 11.1%) and telephone line (ADSL with 8.0%), as has been the case since the beginning of 2018.

In the 1S2020 there was simultaneously a slowdown of the downward trend of the number of DTH and ADSL subscribers, as well as of the upward trend of the number of FTTH subscribers. This evolution could be associated to the impact of Covid-19 on the activity of the providers and on the needs of the users. Reference should also be made to the possible effect of the reduction of the monthly payment of 3P offers by satellite that occurred in the semester under review.

It should also be recalled that the digital terrestrial television (DTT) switchover of frequencies started on 7 February 2020, and was suspended on 13 March due to the constraints associated to Covid-19.

During the 1S2020, MEO became the provider with the largest share of TVS subscribers (39.8%), followed by the NOS Group (39.7%), Vodafone (16.7%) and the NOWO/Onitelecom Group (3.7%).

Vodafone and MEO were the providers that, in net terms, captured most subscribers in relation to the same period of the previous year, with their shares having increased by 0.9 p.p. and 0.3 p.p., respectively. On the other hand, a reduction occurred in the shares of the NOS Group (0.9 p.p.) and NOWO (0.3 p.p.).