Portugal continues to grow TV subscriber base

Portugal was home to 2.44 million TV subscribers at the end of September after adding 71,000 subs during the third quarter of 2009. The country saw subscriber growth across all platforms, according to figures released by regulator Anacom.

Cable accounted for nearly 60% of TV subscriptions during the quarter, although that figure was 1.8% less than the previous quarter. Cable now passes 4.28 million households, compared with 4.19 million a year earlier, and 1.45 million subscribers choose to receive TV services via cable, around half of which take digital services.

At the end of September, 624,000 subscribers, or 25.5% of the total, received TV via satellite, up 26,000 quarter-on-quarter and 63,000 year-on-year. IPTV subscriptions rose by 39,000 during the quarter to a total of 356,000. The number of IPTV operators increased to four after Vodafone launched a TV service during the quarter.

Zon TV Cabo had the largest share of TV subscribers at 66.6%, although this was down from 71.2% a year earlier.