Pay TV subscribers in Portugal up 3.5% YoY in 1H 2021

Subscription television signal distribution service – 1st half of 2021

In the first half of 2021 (1H2021), 94.2% of households had the subscription television signal distribution service (TVS), an increase of 5.0 percentage points compared to the same period of 2020. The reported growth resulted not only from the increase in the number of accesses, but also from the statistical effect of the decrease in the number of private households (-1.9%).

There were 4.3 million subscribers to the subscription TV signal distribution service, 147 thousand additional subscribers (+3.5%) compared to the same period of 2020.

Optical fibre used by 54% of subscription TV subscribers

The growth in the service was due to offers supported over optical fibre (FTTH), which added 300 thousand subscribers compared to the same period of 2020 (+14.8%), 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.

FTTH has been the main form of access to this service since 2018. In 1H2021, FTTH represented 54.4% of total subscribers, followed by cable TV (30.1%), satellite TV-DTH (10.0%) and ADSL (5.5%).

Provider shares

In 1H2021, MEO was the provider with the highest share of subscribers to the subscription TV signal distribution service (40.4%), followed by Grupo NOS (38.2%), Vodafone (17, 8%) and NOWO (3.4%). Vodafone and MEO were the providers that acquired the most subscribers in net terms compared to the same period of 2020, increasing their shares of subscribers by 1.1 percentage points (Vodafone) and 0.5 percentage points (MEO). On the other hand, Grupo NOS reported a decline of -1.2 percentage points and NOWO a decline of 0.3 percentage points in subscribers.

In the residential segment, Grupo NOS maintained the highest share (39.2%), followed by MEO (38.9%), Vodafone (18.1%) and NOWO (3.7%). Vodafone and MEO saw their shares of subscribers increase (+1.1 percentage points and +0.4 percentage points, respectively), while the shares of Grupo NOS and NOWO decreased (-1.2 percentage points and -0.3 percentage points, respectively).

The level of concentration, as measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, although high, decreased slightly compared to the same period of 2020. The current trend of decreasing concentration began in 2013, with the launch of the triple-play offer from Vodafone supported over FTTH. There have been no significant changes in concentration levels since 2015.

Total Pay TV Subscribers (thousands):

 1Q20   2Q20   3Q20   4Q20   1Q21   2Q21
-----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
4,102  4,137  4,189  4,227  4,256  4,283