Meo brings back non-skippable TV ads in Portugal — this time by opt-in

Portuguese operator Meo has relaunched non-skippable video advertising on its connected TV platform, sixteen months after regulators fined the country's three largest operators for forcing ads onto subscribers' recordings without notice.

The new platform, called ADDS+ and powered by digital portal Sapo, inserts pre-roll video ads before content playback on Meo's connected television (CTV) recordings. In a statement sent to Economia Online's +M portal, Meo stressed one difference from earlier attempts: participation is entirely voluntary.

How does the opt-in actually work?

Subscribers will only see the non-skippable ads if they explicitly activate 'Perfis TV' (TV Profiles), a feature that synchronises personalised settings, user lists and channel preferences across multiple devices. The feature itself is about convenience — multi-device continuity — and the advertising comes bundled with it.

Meo frames the trade in familiar terms. Consenting users, the company said, will benefit from a more customised experience and gain indirect access to expanded content under an AVoD (advertising-supported video on demand) model. What the operator did not quantify is how much additional content opt-in actually unlocks, or whether the expanded catalogue includes material subscribers previously paid for. The claim of a 'more customised experience' is likewise unmeasured.

Each pre-roll carries a single ad, a format Meo says maximises viewer attention. One ad per break is a modest load by CTV standards; whether it stays modest as the platform matures is another matter the statement does not address.

Why the caution? Anacom's sanctions.

The careful, consent-based design is not a stylistic choice. It follows a regulatory reckoning over Playce, a joint ad-insertion system launched by Meo, Nos and Vodafone that was shut down in May 2025.

Portugal's telecommunications regulator, Anacom, systematically sanctioned all three major operators for unilaterally inserting mandatory advertising into automatic recordings. The operators failed to give subscribers the required 30-day written notice and denied them the right to terminate contracts without penalty — obligations that apply whenever operators change contractual terms.

The Playce episode killed the joint operator venture outright. Three operators, one shared ad platform, and a regulator willing to fine all of them proved an unrecoverable combination for a business built on ads customers never agreed to watch.

What does the opt-in protect?

The explicit consent mechanism lets Meo safeguard its existing contractual conditions. Because the ads attach to a feature the subscriber chooses to activate, Meo can argue nothing about the base service has changed — no 30-day notice, no penalty-free exit rights triggered, no fresh grounds for Anacom intervention.

That legal insulation is arguably the platform's core design feature, ahead of any advertising performance. The voluntary structure converts what was once a contract modification into an optional product choice.

The commercial logic remains what it always was: addressable TV advertising is among the highest-yielding ad formats operators can sell, and Portugal's operators have already shown they want that revenue badly enough to risk fines for it. Meo is now testing whether customers will hand over that attention voluntarily — in exchange for device sync and an unspecified slice of AVoD content.

What happens next?

Meo has not disclosed rollout targets, pricing for advertisers, or a timeline for measuring uptake of Perfis TV — the number that will determine whether ADDS+ is a real business or a quiet retreat from a fined venture. Watch for Anacom's response and any disclosure of opt-in rates as the platform's first real test.

By Rebecca Stone