Half of NOS subs taking convergence products as TV base grows

Almost half of Portuguese service provider NOS’s customers took a converged bundle at the end of the second quarter, with pay TV additions growing significantly in the three months to June.

NOS’s total revenue-generating unit base grew by 2.6% to 9.499 million at the end of the quarter, with convergent services representing 49.3% of the fixed-line customer base.

NOS added 6,800 fixed-line pay TV customers in the quarter, up from 2,900 for the three months to March, more than offsetting a decline in its DTH base. The company attributed the improvement to a general improvement in the operating environment and to the addition of 61,300 new addressable homes to its coverage area.

Growth in convergence was one of the main drivers in post-paid mobile subscriptions and the company’s market share, according to NOS. the company added 24,500 mobile customers in the quarter, with 31,400 post-paid additions being partially offset by a decline in the pre-paid base.

NOS had 749,300 converged customers in total at the end of June.

The quarter saw the launch of NOS Giga, the service provider’s new 1Gbps broadband offering, following its DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade in Q1. The three months to June also saw NOS launch a new low-cost entry-level triple-play offering for €29.90 excluding the cost of the set-top box.

NOS had 1.302 million fixed-line pay TV customers at the end of the quarter, up from 1.295 million in March. However, DTH subscribers declined from 319,600 to 314,800 over the same period. Fixed broadband customers stood at 1.358 million, up from 1.344 million, and fixed voice customers stood at 1.764 million, up from 1.76 million.

The company posted revenues of €389.3 million for the quarter, up from €380.3 million a year earlier, while EBITDA stood €158.8 million, up from €142.4 million.