At the end of first quarter 2016, there were about 3.54 million subscribers to the subscription TV service in Portugal - an increase of 28 thousand versus the previous quarter and an increase of 150 thousand versus the same quarter of 2015. The growth in the service was mainly due to offers based on optical fibre, where the number of subscribers increased by 5.2 percent over the previous quarter and by 27.4 percent compared to the same period of 2015, rising to make up 24.1 percent of all subscribers.
The cable TV service represented 38% of total subscribers, while xDSL and satellite were used by 20.8% and 17.1% of subscribers, respectively.
It is estimated that about 88.6% of subscription TV subscribers received the service as part of a bundle. The number of subscribers receiving the subscription TV service as part of a bundle of services increased by 1.7 percent over the quarter.
Grupo NOS reported the largest share of subscription TV subscribers (44%), followed by MEO (40.2%), Vodafone (10.7%) and Cabovisão (4.9%). Grupo NOS (+0.2 percentage points) and Vodafone (+0.5 percentage points) saw their shares increase, whereas MEO (-0.5 percentage points) and Cabovisão (-0.2 percentage points) both lost customers over the period. In net terms, Vodafone was the provider that added the largest number of subscribers in the quarter.
Total revenues from the subscription TV service (stand-alone and bundles that include this service) totalled 448 million euros up to the end of 1st quarter of 2016 (increasing 10.4 percent in relation to the same quarter of 2015), whereas triple/quadruple/quintuple-play bundles were the main drivers of revenue growth.
At the end of March, about 17.7% of households with subscription TV had access to premium channels, while 76.3% had more than 80 channels.
The level of use of subscription TV service features increased by 5 percentage points in the 1st quarter of this year, with about 72% of subscribers using at least one of the available features. Automatic recording was the most commonly used service.
During the period being reported, about 3.1% of individuals aged 10 years or over had subscribed to streaming-on-demand services (Netflix, Fox Play and NPlay).
Consult the statistical report:
- Subscription television service - 1st quarter 2016 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1389417
