NOS closes in on million advanced TV subs

Portuguese pay TV group NOS had close to a million advanced TV subscribers at the end of 2016, out of a total pay TV base of 1.6 million.

NOS had 983,000 Iris and UMA TV customers at the end of the year, up 13.6% year-on-year. Overall pay TV growth was 3.7%, with an acceleration of net additions in the fourth quarter to 14,500, driven by network expansion. The company’s HFC network added 23,100 homes to its footprint in the fourth quarter, taking it to 3.764 million homes passed.

NOS has positioned UMA TV, the RDK-based advanced TV service it launched last year, as a premium convergent service, with the older Iris offering now considered a mainstream service. The company said it was “gradually and opportunistically” upgrading higher ARPU customer to UMA TV, which can be accessed over different types of devices.

UMA TV convergent bundles include unlimited traffic over the NoOS Mobile or fixed networks to access the UMA interface.

The company said that UMA TV had been further boosted by the launch of a cloud-sharing feature, NOS Share, which allows UMA TV customers to store content in the cloud and share it over any screen. The service enables UMA TV customers to share films and live content directly on their own TV or that of friends and families.

Converged customers numbered 680,000, up 15.1%, and convergent revenue-generating units amounted to 3.387 million, up 18.7%, out of a total RGU base of just over nine million.

NOS added 27,800 fixed broadband RGUs in the fourth quarter, along with 32,600 voice RGUs. The company added 60,000 mobiel customers in the quarter, taking its mobile RGU base to 4.4546 million.

NOS posted revenues of €1.515 billion for the full year, up 4.9%, and EBITDA of €556.7 million, up 4.4%.