Portugal ended the third quarter with a total of 4.5 million subscribers to pay-TV services.
This, according to then regulator ANACOM, was 134,000 (+3.1%) more than in the same period last year. However, the growth rate was lower than in previous years, with totals of 3.2% and 4.1% in Q3 2021 and Q3 2020 respectively.
The number of pay-TV subscribers receiving services via FTTH stood at 2.7 million in Q3 this year, or 11% more than 12 months earlier. This was not only down to attracting newv customers but also some switching from other technologies.
ANACOM notes that FTTH has been the main way to access pay-TV in Portugal since 2018. As of the end of Q3 it accounted for 59.9% of subscribers, followed by cable TV (28.4%), DTH (8.3%) and ADSL (3.3%).
At the end of Q3, the total number of residential pay-TV subscribers stood at 4 million (+2.9% more than a year earlier), while the non-residential total stood at 485,000 (+4.9%).
At the end of the Q3, Meo accounted for the most pay-TV subscribers (41.0%), followed by Grupo Nos (37.2%), Vodafone (18.7%) and Nowo (3.0%). Vodafone and Meo were the providers that, in net terms, captured the most subscribers compared to the same period of the previous year, with their shares having increased by 0.7pp and 0.4pp respectively. On the other hand, the shares of Grupo Nos (-0.8pp and Nowo (-0.3pp.) decreased.
In the residential segment, Meo held the highest share (39.4%), followed by Grupo Nos (38.3%), Vodafone (18.9%) and Nowo (3.3%). The shares of Vodafone and Meo increased (+0.6pp and +0.4pp, respectively), while the shares of Grupo Nos and Nowo registered decreases (-0.7pp and -0.3pp respectively).
