NOS sees convergence strategy paying off

Portuguese pay TV operator NOS saw growth in the third quarter coming from its successful convergence strategy as the number of net adds for individual services slows.

According to NOS, 47.3% of fixed subscribers now take a mix of communication and entertainment services. The company cited independent figures that showed it now had a 40% share in the market for bundled packages.

NOS said that pay TV remains “the core measure of residential growth as the basis for upselling all other services”. The company added 2,400 pay TV customers in the quarter, with 5,500 new fixed-line TV customers more than offsetting a decline in the satellite base of 3,100. NOS said it had successfully grown its pay TV base in the face of remedies imposed by the regulator over its communication of price increases.

NOS had 3.632 million converged revenue-generating units at the end of September, up 11% year-on-year, with the number of converged customers growing by 8.7% to 718,000. Pay TV customers increased by 1.9% year-on-year to 1.616 million, while total RGUs were up 4.7% to 9.366 million on the back of relatively stronger broadband, mobile and fixed-voice growth. Residential ARPU was up 4.1% to €44.60.

The number of advanced TV customers for NOS’s Iris and UMA services now numbers 1.040 million, representing 93.8% of the overall triple-, quad- and quintuple-play base.

NOS posted Q3 revenues of €393.1 million, up 3.2%, and EBITDA of €151.2 million, up 4.1%.