IPTV growing fastest in Portugal

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
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According to Portugal’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), at the end of June 2009 the total number of subscribers to pay TV in the country reached 2.372 million, 47 thousand more than in the previous quarter and up 232 thousand from the same quarter of 2008.

In the second quarter subscribers to digital cable increased by 53 thousand (analogue down around 60 thousand), DTH went up 13 thousand and IPTV grew by 40 thousand. Zon Multimedia and Cabovisão continued to lose market share to Portugal Telecom (PTC).

Cable television

Cable television service subscribers (thousands):

                            1Q09            2Q09
                  --------------  --------------  Quarterly     Annual
           2Q08   Total  digital  Total  digital  variation  variation
          -----   -----  -------  -----  -------  ---------  ---------
Total     1,495   1,459      619  1,452      672      -0.4%      -2.9%

Satellite television (DTH)

Subscribers to satellite television distribution service (DTH) (thousands):

                          Quarterly     Annual
        2Q08  1Q09  2Q09  variation  variation
        ----  ----  ----  ---------  ---------
Total    525   584   597       2.2%      13.7%

Other platforms (IPTV or similar)

Subscribers to pay TV – other platforms (thousands):

                          Quarterly     Annual
        2Q08  1Q09  2Q09  Variation  variation
        ----  ----  ----  ---------  ---------
Total    119   282   322      14.3%       170%

All platforms

Subscription television service subscribers – all technologies (thousands):

                     Quarterly  Annual
 2Q08   1Q09   2Q09     change  change
-----  -----  -----  ---------  ------
2,140  2,325  2,372       2.0%   10.9%

Shares of subscription TV service subscribers (as percentage):

                         2Q08   3Q08   4Q08   1Q09   2Q09
                        -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
Grupo ZON/TV Cabo       74.3%  71.2%  72.3%  70.1%  68.4%
PTC                      5.4%   9.6%  13.6%  16.5%  18.7%
Cabovisão               14.0%  13.3%  12.4%  11.7%  11.1%
TVTEL                    3.4%   3.1%      -      -      -
AR Telecom               0.9%   0.9%   1.0%   1.0%   1.0%
Alternative providers    2.0%   1.9%   0.7%   0.7%   0.8%

More: Television Subscription Services – 2nd quarter 2009