Explained: The state of CTV advertising in India

Many reports and experts have repeatedly predicted that India will soon become a major player in the global CTV markets.

BestMediaInfo reached out to marketers to gather the most precise estimate of the current number of CTV connections in India, its growth prospects, and various factors driving the growth projections of CTV advertising.

Accurate estimate of the number of CTV connections in India today

Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki, highlighted that there are various estimates of CTV households in India.

“We can clearly see that as per most of the estimates, the current year range is around 28-35 million households and by 2030 it is about to reach 60-75 million households,” Srivastava said.

Similarly, Rajiv Dubey, Head of Media at Dabur, said that in 2022, 20-25 million households had connected TVs at home. This figure is projected to increase to around 40-45 million by 2025.

Meanwhile, BK Rao, Senior Category Head at Parle Products, said that as per the data he has gathered, the number seems to be in the range of anywhere around 15 to 25 million.

“Certainly, there is a noticeable surge in the popularity of CTV in our country. Increasingly, individuals are choosing smart TVs, and a growing number of people have easy access to the internet. They are recognising that instead of going for costly DTH or cable subscriptions, opting for a connected TV is a more affordable alternative,” he added.

Siddharth Dabhade

Siddharth Dabhade, Global Commercial Board Member and Managing Director, MiQ India, said that India is projected to have about 30-35 million CTV households by the end of 2023. This number is projected to grow 4x to 80 million households by the end of 2025.

“Presently, CTV has a predominant viewership across the metros among affluent, younger audiences, but with cord-cutting and cord-shaving trends expected to accelerate, the burgeoning shift toward streaming is poised to catalyse the growth of CTVs throughout India, extending beyond metropolitan regions,” he added.

Viewers of CTV households

Shashank Srivastava

According to Srivastava, a common industry standard is to use a factor of 2.5 to convert the number of CTV connections to the number of viewers.

In Pay TV households, the factor is 4.5 viewers per household.

“The assumption here is that most of the CTV households are nuclear families. This means that, based on the estimates above, the total number of CTV viewers in India in 2023 could be between 70 to 85 million,” he added.

BK Rao

Similarly, Rao said, “If TV usually has 4.5 viewers in a household, I'd estimate CTV to be around 2.5 to 3 viewers.”

Dubey said, “The 20 million households represent 80 million users, therefore the number of viewers would be around four viewers in a household.”

Specific user behaviours handy for advertiser’s use

Srivastava said there are some demographic trends and specific user behaviours of CTV viewers in India that may be handy for advertisers:

1. Age: CTV viewers in India are typically younger than traditional TV viewers. According to a report by BARC India, the average age of a CTV viewer in India is 32, compared to 44 for a traditional TV viewer.
2. Gender: CTV viewers in India are more likely to be male than female. According to the BARC India report, 63% of CTV viewers in India are male, while 37% are female.
3. Income: CTV viewers in India are more likely to come from high-income households. According to a report by Finecast, 42% of CTV viewers in India come from households with an annual income of over INR 10 lakh, compared to 27% of traditional TV viewers.
4. Device usage: CTV viewers in India are more likely to use their smartphones and tablets to watch CTV content than a dedicated smart TV. According to a report by BARC India, more than 65% of CTV viewers in India watch CTV content on their smartphones whereas the same figure for Hotstar is 78%.

“As can be seen, these estimates vary from source to source like Finecast, BARC, Hotstar etc. While these data points are handy in accessing an overall picture of CTV users, the lack of detailed data by platforms and households presents a lot of challenges for media planning,” Srivastava said.

Rajiv Dubey

Dubey emphasised that the main demographic on most CTV platforms is the affluent population of the country. The general population uses CTV mainly during big events only.

Dabhade of MiQ India said, “When we pitch or work on video ad campaigns for our clients, we leverage the power of our data analytics and programmatic expertise to share a comprehensive view of where the advertiser’s most relevant customers are on CTV, whether it's on OTT platforms or YouTube. We can identify what content users are watching on their TVs using ACR data and connect the client’s first-party data with the geo-contextual signals to optimise the campaign.”

“In general, CTV viewership patterns differ. During peak viewing times, like sports events or binge-watching behaviours, specific time slots for particular types of content can guide advertisers in timing their ad placements effectively. User behaviour on CTV platforms can differ based on demographics. For instance, younger audiences tend to favour on-demand content, while older demographics might prefer Hindi or vernacular general entertainment shows, news or live events. Advertisers leverage these patterns with data-driven CTV planning to tailor their ad strategies to specific age groups,” he added.

CTV capabilities for advertising

Apart from targeting top-level high-income user profiles, advertisers say they prefer advertising on CTV because it is actionable and addressable.

But do users really perform any action on CTV advertising like they do on mobile?

Maruti’s Srivastava said that conversation/engagement rates on CTV are typically lower than conversation/engagement rates on mobile devices. This is because CTV ads are typically more passive than mobile ads.

“For example, a CTV viewer may watch a CTV ad while they are eating dinner or relaxing on the couch, while a mobile viewer may be more actively engaged with their device when they see a mobile ad,” he explained.

“However, conversation/engagement rates on CTV are still relatively satisfactory. According to a recent study by Nielsen, the average conversation/engagement rate for CTV ads is 5%, while the average conversation/engagement rate for mobile ads is 10%. Advertisers are generally satisfied with the actionable pitch for CTV. However, some advertisers may be disappointed that the conversation/engagement rates for CTV ads are lower than the conversation/engagement rates for mobile ads,” he added.

Dubey highlighted that the conversion rate on mobile devices for advertisers can vary widely depending on various factors, including the industry, type of product or service, targeting strategies, ad creatives, and the overall effectiveness of the advertising campaign.

“Whereas CTV ads are not for conversion but for awareness and brand building as people usually don’t make purchases via their TVs. CTV ad engagement rate can be measured by impressions and views, Tracking viewership shows your ad’s popularity trends. Many CTV ads offer real-time viewership statistics, so you can analyse these metrics immediately,” Dubey said.

“Actionable pitches for CTV are not advisable as there are no commonly used direct ways to make purchases on CTV. So, it will be a longer way which the users may not necessarily want to do,” he added.

MiQ’s Dabhade emphasised that from an advertiser’s perspective, CTV offers planning, targeting, activation and measurement which was not possible on linear TV. With CTVs, advertisers can target TV audiences based on the content they are watching using ACR data or using contextual signals.

“CTV also offers reach and frequency control to avoid overexposing the ads to your audience. Some brands expose some households to the TV ad between 10-15 times that can lead to around 80% of ads being shown to just 20% of their audience, resulting in a waste of budget, and a missed opportunity to reach under-exposed audiences. While conversion rates on CTV may not be as high as mobile, the attention is higher on CTV as you feature your brand on the biggest screen in the household. You can also retarget your audience from CTV to other devices - these advanced capabilities are not available on linear TV advertising, hence the advertisers find CTV more actionable,” he added.

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