Portugal’s Nos confirms TV turnaround, adds to Iris base

Portuguese pay TV operator Nos’ advanced TV service Iris added 41,000 in the third quarter. Overall, Nos reported 19,500 net pay TV additions in the quarter to September.

The company had a total pay TV base of 1.522 million at the end of the quarter, up 3.6% year-on-year after four solid quarters of growth. Additions during the quarter comprised 14,600 fixed access TV customers and 5,000 DTH customers.

Convergent bundles grew by 45,800 to 555,600, representing 36.5% of the pay TV subscriber base and 40.2% of fixed access pay TV subscribers, according to Nos.

Nos said that the successful turnaround of the pay TV base after a long-term trend of market share decline reflects the strength of Nos’ convergent value proposition and successful network expansion and the increased focus and effectiveness of a more proactive retention activity which in turn is driving materially lower levels of churn and higher levels of customer loyalty.

Nos said that the Iris service now accounted for 88% of triple, quad and quint-play subscribers.

Revenues from Nos’s Zap Angolan Pay TV joint venture continued to grow, with Nos’ 30% stake in revenues posting a 23.6% year-on-year increase to  €19.6 million. The EBITDA of the stake in Zap declined by 40.6% to €3.6 million, significantly less than the amount generated in previous quarters mainly due to the negative impact of the Angolan currency devaluation.

Nos posted operating revenues of €367.9 million for the quarter, up 5.8%, while EBITDA was €143.5 million, up 7.5%.