Portugal Telecom has pointed to the success of its Meo IPTV platform as the key factor in the turnaround of its wireline business. The fourth quarter saw gross profit increase by 0.4% year-on-year, the best performance for 19 quarters.
The Meo Triple Play offer has helped to stem the number of fixed line disconnections, which fell to 96,000 in 2009, compared to 173,000 in 2008 and 313,000 in 2007.
Meo added a further 269,000 pay-TV customers during 2009, bringing the overall total to 581,000 and representing 67.4% of the ADSL customer base.
Portugal Telecom claims Meo to be the most innovative pay-TV offer in Portugal. Its VOD offer comprises 2,000 movies including high definition titles. More than 50% of Meo subscribers have used VOD on a paid for basis – an increase of 11.2pp on Q4 2008 – and consuming an average of 2.5 movies per month.