Portuguese snap up bundled telecoms deals, NOS leads by revenue

LISBON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The number of Portuguese opting for bundled phone, Internet and pay-TV services jumped 10.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier and revenues increased even more, led by a strong performance at newly-created NOS.

With phone-only revenues under pressure in a mature and cash-strapped European market, telecoms companies are increasingly looking to sell a package of services including broadband and pay-TV in order to win customers.

In Britain, BT Group (LSE: BT-A.L - news) is in talks with mobile network providers EE and O2 about potentially adding a further service to its offering.

In Portugal, data from telecoms agency Anacom showed 2.8 million subscribers used bundled services in the third quarter, including the highest number of new clients in 2-1/2 years.

Anacom said 71 out of 100 households had bundled services, up from around 64 a year earlier. Portugal's economy started to recover from a long recession last year and is expected to return to modest growth this year.

Revenues in the bundled segment rose 11.4 percent in the quarter to 847 million euros ($1.1 billion), led by NOS -- the product of a recent merger between local companies ZON and Sonaecom's unit Optimus.

While traditional market leader Portugal Telecom (PT), whose operating assets have been incorporated into Brazil's Oi , led by total number of bundled customers, accounting for a 44 percent market share, its main rival NOS was ahead in terms of revenues with 43 percent against PT's 42 percent.

Vodafone had a customer market share of 9.4 percent and was the only company to grow that measure in the quarter.

Altice, which is set to buy PT's assets from Oi (NYSE: OIBR - news) , had a subscriber market share of 7.7 percent..

(1 US dollar = 0.8053 euro) (Reporting by Daniel Alvarenga and Andrei Khalip; Editing by Mark Potter)