The total number of subscribers receiving a pay-TV service in Portugal at the end of 2023 was 4.6 million, 96,000 more than in the previous year.
According to regulator Anacom, the 2.1% increase was the lowest annual growth since 2013.
The overwhelming majority of families had a pay-TV service (98.3%). The growth was supported by the growth in fibre optic delivery (FTTH/B), which reached 2.9 million subscribers and registered 198,000 more subscribers compared to the previous year (+7.2%).
The growth came both from new customers, and those switching from other networks.
Fibre-optic delivery had its lowest increase since the emergence of the technology in 2007.
At the end of 2023, FTTH/B represented 63.9% of total subscribers, followed by cable TV (26.9%), satellite TV (7.1%) and ADSL (2.1%).
There were 4.1 million residential pay-TV subscribers, 68,000 more than in 2022, and representing 88.7% of total subscribers.
In the non-residential segment, the number of subscribers totalled 518,000 representing 11.3% of total subscribers, and registering growth of 5.7% compared to the previous year. Since 2021, the number of non-residential pay-TV subscribers has accelerated its growth rate.
MEO was the provider with the highest share of subscribers (41.5%) to a pay-TV service, followed by Grupo NOS (36.4%), Vodafone (19.2%) and NOWO ( 2.7%). MEO and Vodafone were the providers that, in net terms, attracted more subscribers compared to the previous year, with their shares increasing by 0.5 percentage points (pp) and 0.4 pp, respectively. On the other hand, the shares of Grupo NOS (-0.7 pp) and NOWO (-0.2 pp) decreased.
