Portugal adds 29,000 pay TV subscribers in 1Q 2021

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021
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ANACOM: Pay-television service sees 3.7% increase in subscribers in the 1st quarter

In 1st quarter 2021, there were 4.3 million subscribers to the subscription television service (STVS) in Portugal, 153 thousand more (+3.7%) than in the same quarter of 2020. This growth was due to offers supported over optical fibre (FTTH), which registered an additional 285 thousand subscribers compared to the same quarter of the previous year (+14.4%), totalling 2.3 million subscribers. This growth resulted not only from the acquisition of new customers, but also from customers previously supported by other networks switching to optical fibre.

Since 2018, optical fibre has been the principal form of access to this service in Portugal. In the first quarter, fibre represented 53.1% of total subscribers, followed by cable television, with 30.5%; satellite television (DTH) with 10.3%; and ADSL with 6.1%.

In 1st quarter 2021, MEO was the provider with the highest share of subscribers to the pay television service (40.3%), followed by Grupo NOS (38.5%), Vodafone (17.6%) and NOWO (3.5%). In the residential segment, Grupo NOS maintained the highest share (39.5%), followed by MEO (38.8%), Vodafone (17.9%) and NOWO (3.8%).

MEO and Vodafone were the providers that acquired the most STVS subscribers in net terms compared to the same period of 2020, increasing their shares of subscribers by 0.5 percentage points and one percentage point, respectively. On the other hand, Grupo NOS reported a decline of 1.2 percentage points in its share of subscribers and NOWO a decline of 0.3 percentage points.

In the first quarter of 2021, 93.7% of households had access to this service, an increase of 5.2 percentage points from 1st quarter 2020. This growth resulted not only from an increase in the number of accesses, but also from the statistical effect of a decrease in the number of private households (-1.9%).

Total Pay TV Subscribers (thousands):

 1Q20   2Q20   3Q20   4Q20   1Q21
-----  -----  -----  -----  -----
4,102  4,137  4,189  4,227  4,256

Links: ANACOM