Fibre and DSL offerings drive modest Portuguese pay TV growth

Pay TV in Portugal achieved modest growth in the year to June to reach 3.25 million subscribers, according to research by national regulator Anacom.

According to the research Portuguese pay TV operators collectively signed up 38,200 customers in the second quarter, up 1.2% on the previous quarter. In the year to June, pay TV numbers grew by 104,800, or 3.3%.

According to Anacom, the growth was driven by take-up of offers over FTTH/B and DSL services, while cable customers declined marginally. Cable had 42.7% of the overall subscriber base at the end of the second quarter, while xDSL had 22.2%, DTH had 18.2% and FTTH/B had 16.9%.

About eight in 10 pay TV subscribers took a service as part of a bundled package. Nos remained the pay TV leader, with a 45.3% share, followed by Portugal Telecom with 41.9%, Cabovisão with 6.7%, and Vodafone with 5.9%.

Only about 18.6% of pay TV subscribers took premium channels, down 0.9% quarter-on-quarter.