According to a report by the National Communications Authority (Anacom), subscribers numbered 3,985,000 at the end of June, up 132,000 from a year earlier.

"The growth of the service was due to offerings distributed via optical fibre (FTTH), which recorded 298,000 subscribers more than the first half of 2018 (+20.2%)", the report states.

Fibre continued to be the main form of access to subscription television services, with 44.4% of the total subscribers, followed by cable, with 33.2%, direct-to-home (DTH) via satellite, with 12.0%, and ADSL on regular phone line, at 10.4%.

As to the market share of the various providers at end-June, NOS led with 40.5%, followed by MEO, Vodafone and NOWO with shares of 39.6%, 15.8% and 4.0% respectively.

MEO and Vodafone were the providers that, in net terms, captured the most subscribers in the period, with their shares increasing by 0.7 and 1.1 percentage points respectively.

The market shares of NOS and NOWO decreased by 1.4 and 0.4 points respectively.

In a statement, MEO noted that it is currently "only 0.9% behind the incumbent operator" – former cable TV near-monopoly NOS – and said of itsel that "once it reaches this milestone [of overtaking NOS], it will be the first operator to become a TV market leader in just ten years."

According to Anacom's report, the degree of concentration in the market, measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, although high had in June "slightly decreased" on a year earlier.