PORTUGAL PAY TV INDUSTRY GREW 4.1% DURING Q3 OF 2020

In Portugal, the number of subscribers to the subscription television signal distribution service (TVS) increased by 4.1%. The information was revealed by the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), which maintains that during the third quarter of 2020, 9 out of 10 families are customers of the service. This represents an additional 3.6 percentage point (p.p.) growth compared to the same quarter last year.

The number of subscribers to the subscription TV signal distribution service reached 4.2 million, 167 thousand more (+ 4.1%) than in the same quarter of the previous year. This is the highest year-on-year growth in absolute terms since the end of 2015.

The growth of the service was due to offers supported by fiber optics (FTTH), which registered 270 thousand more subscribers compared to the same quarter of the previous year (+ 14.6%), reaching 2.1 million subscribers. This growth was due not only to the attraction of new customers, but also the transfer to FTTH of customers that were previously compatible with other networks.

Since 2018, FTTH has been the main form of access to this service. In 3Q2020, FTTH surpassed the barrier of 50% of total subscribers (50.3%), followed by cable TV (31.5%), DTH (10.8%) and ADSL (7.4%).

In 3Q2020, MEO was the provider with the highest share of subscribers to the subscription TV signal distribution service (39.9%), followed by Grupo NOS (39.4%), Vodafone (17.0%) and NOWO (3.6%). In the residential segment, Grupo NOS maintained the largest share (40.2%), followed by MEO (38.5%), Vodafone (17.3%) and NOWO (4.0%).

Vodafone and MEO were the providers that, in net terms, had the most subscribers in relation to the same period of the previous year, with an increase in their participation of 1.0 pp and 0.4 pp, respectively. On the other hand, the shares of Grupo NOS (-1.0 p.p.) and NOWO (-0.3 p.p.) decreased.

The level of concentration, measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, although high, decreased slightly compared to the same quarter last year. The current downward trend in concentration began in 2013 with the launch of Vodafone's FTTH-compatible triple play offering. Since the beginning of 2018, the level of concentration has shown small decreases.