Growth in Portugal’s pay-TV market last year was the lowest since 2017.
According to the regulator ANACOM, there were a total of 4.4 million subscribers as of the end of 2021, or 126,000 (+3%) more than 12 months earlier.
ANACOM notes that FTTH has been the maim form of access to pay-TV services in the country since 2018.
At the end of 2021, FTTH represented 56.9% of total subscribers, followed by cable TV (29.4%), satellite TV – DTH (9.2%) and ADSL (4.5 %).
Offers supported over FTTH gained 290,000 subscribers (+13.3%) in 2021, with the number of subscribers at year’s end being 2.5 million. This growth resulted not only from the capture of new customers, but also from the transfer to FTTH of customers who were previously supported on other networks.
At the end of 2021, Meo was the provider with the highest share of pay-TV subscribers (40.6%), followed by Grupo Nos (37.8%), Vodafone (18.3%) and Nowo (3.2%). Meo and Vodafone were the providers that, in net terms, attracted more subscribers compared to the previous year, with their shares increasing by 0.4 pp and 0.9pp respectively. On the other hand, the shares of Grupo Nos (-1.0pp.) and Nowo (-0.3 pp) declined.
In the residential segment, Meo had the highest share (39.1%), followed by Grupo Nos (38.8%), Vodafone (18.5%) and Nowo (3.5%). The shares of Vodafone and Meo increased (+0.8 pp and +0.4 pp, respectively), while the shares of Grupo Nos and Nowo decreased (-0.9 pp and -0.3 pp, respectively).
