Portugal pay-TV subscribers up 3.1% Y-o-Y in 3Q 2022

Anacom: Pay-TV signal distribution service – 3rd quarter 2022

In the 3rd quarter of 2022 (3Q2022), 95.7% of households had a pay-TV (PTV) signal distribution service, up 2.7 percentage points (p.p.) on the same quarter last year.

4.5 million people subscribed the Pay-TV signal distribution service, 134 thousand (+3.1%) more than in the same period last year. The growth rate was lower than in previous years (+3.2% in 3Q2021 and +4.1% in 3Q2020).

Fibre optics with 60% of Pay-TV subscribers

The service grew due to offers supported on fibre optics (FTTH), which registered 265 thousand more subscribers than the previous year (+11.0%), reaching 2.7 million subscribers. This growth resulted not only from the addition of new customers, but also from the switching to FTTH of customers that were previously supported on other networks.

FTTH has been the main form of access to this service since 2018. By the end of 3Q2022, FTTH represented 59.9% of total subscribers, followed by cable TV (28.4%), satellite TV – DTH (8.3%) and ADSL (3.3%).

Residential Pay-TV subscribers represented 89% of the total

By the end of 3Q2022, the number of residential subscribers of the Pay-TV signal distribution service reached 4.0 million, 111 thousand (+2.9%) more than in the previous quarter and represented 89.1% of total subscribers.

Non-residential subscribers reached 485 thousand (10.9% of the total), and registered a year-on-year growth of 4.9%.

Provider shares

By the end of 3Q2022, MEO was the provider with the highest share of subscribers to the Pay-TV signal distribution service (41.0%), followed by the NOS Group (37.2%), Vodafone (18.7%) and NOWO (3.0%). Vodafone and MEO were the providers which, in net terms, attracted the most subscribers in comparison to the same period last year, with their shares increasing 0.7 p.p. and 0.4 p.p., respectively. On the other hand, the NOS Group (-0.8 p.p.) and NOWO (-0.3 p.p.) shares decreased.

In the residential segment, MEO held the highest share (39.4%), followed by the NOS Group (38.3%), Vodafone (18.9%) and NOWO (3.3%). Vodafone and MEO’s shares increased (+0.6 p.p. and +0.4 p.p., respectively), while the NOS Group and NOWO’s shares decreased (-0.7 p.p. and -0.3 p.p., respectively).

The level of concentration, as measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, although high, decreased slightly compared to the same period last year. The current trend towards lower concentration began in 2013, with the launch of Vodafone’s triple play offer supported on FTTH. However, there have been no significant changes in concentration since 2015.