Pay television in Portugal is growing without stopping

While in Spain pay television seems to stagnate at the two million barrier, Portugal, with a population four times smaller than Spain's, already exceeds 2.4 million subscribers.

With a growth rate of more than 70,000 monthly subscriptions, Portugal is about to reach two and a half million pay television subscribers in a very short space of time. So far in 2009, Portuguese platforms have managed to add 232,000 new clients.

This growth is causing large content groups to see Portugal in a better light than Spain when studying new product and channel launches. Furthermore, piracy, which had initially done a lot of damage when it took off, is now at bay and platforms like Zon TV have invested large sums in improving their conditional access (in the case of Zon, encrypted with Nagra 3).

The Portuguese offer is practically concentrated in the hands of Zon Tv Cabo, which concentrates seven out of every ten subscribers (66%). Of these subscribers, about 400,000 access Zon TV through the Hispasar satellite, while the rest do so via cable.

The push of Portugal Telecom, which is barely fighting for 20% of the business share, is forcing the six platforms that operate in the neighboring country to sharpen their ingenuity. For example, Zon Tv recently launched a special remote control with buttons with direct access to children's channels.