Portugal: Over 53% Watch Streaming Services

Why It Matters

The rise signals a maturing digital entertainment market, prompting advertisers and telecom operators to recalibrate strategies for higher engagement and revenue potential in Portugal.

Key Takeaways

• 53.3% of Portuguese adults streamed Q4 2025
• Subscriptions grew to 43.1%, up 2.1% YoY
• 14.7% hold three, 8% hold four services
• Daily or near‑daily streaming by 41.7% of viewers
• Portugal lags EU average by 10.7 points

Pulse Analysis

Portugal’s streaming penetration has finally crossed the 50‑percent threshold, reflecting broader European trends toward cord‑cutting and on‑demand consumption. The modest 1.2‑point lift from the previous year masks a deeper shift: younger, higher‑income households are increasingly treating streaming as their primary TV source, while broadband rollout and mobile data affordability have removed traditional barriers. Compared with the EU‑27 average, Portugal still trails, but the gap is narrowing as local content investments and global platform expansions gain traction.

The subscription landscape is fragmenting, with a notable rise in multi‑service households. Nearly 15 percent of viewers now juggle three platforms and 8 percent manage four, indicating a willingness to pay for niche libraries and exclusive originals. This diversification pressures content owners to negotiate more complex licensing deals and pushes platforms to differentiate through localized productions, bundled offers, or ad‑supported tiers. For advertisers, the shift toward daily streaming creates new inventory opportunities, especially in addressable video formats that can leverage granular viewer data.

Looking ahead, telecom operators and pay‑TV incumbents are likely to double‑down on hybrid bundles that combine broadband, mobile, and streaming services to retain churn‑prone customers. Policy makers may also consider incentives to boost domestic content creation, narrowing the EU‑average gap. As Portuguese consumers continue to allocate discretionary spend toward digital entertainment, the market presents a fertile ground for innovative monetisation models, from transactional video‑on‑demand to premium ad‑supported experiences.

Portugal: Over 53% watch streaming services

February 17, 2026 · By Branislav Pekic, Rome

More than half of Portugal’s adult population (53.3 %, or 4.6 million people over 15 years of age) watched content via streaming services between September and December 2025. This represents a new national record and a 1.2 % increase from the previous year, an addition of 107 000 users.

The study, conducted by Marktest’s B‑Stream Barometer, also found that 41.7 % of streaming viewers use services daily or almost daily. Subscriptions rose to 43.1 % of residents, marking a 2.1 % year‑over‑year increase.

While nearly half of subscribers (46.6 %) use only one platform, there is a growing trend of users subscribing to three (14.7 %) or four services (8 %). However, the intent to sign up for new services in the near future saw a slight dip of 0.7 percentage points, now standing at 7.2 %.

Despite the surge in streaming’s popularity, Portugal still lags behind the European average for paid on‑demand video. In 2024, 37.9 % of the population aged 16–74 used these services, some 10.7 percentage points below the EU‑27 average. According to data from the National Communications Authority (Anacom), this places Portugal nineteenth in Europe.