Contextual targeting in CTV places ads based on the content being watched — genre, language, content rating, show type — rather than on who the viewer is. The signals come from the content metadata in the OpenRTB bid request's content object, which publishers populate with genre, IAB content category, language, and content rating fields.
In India CTV, the most reliable contextual signals are:
- Language: Publishers consistently populate language fields, making language a high-confidence targeting dimension for reaching Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, or Bengali audiences specifically.
- Genre: Sports, drama, news, and kids categories are reliably tagged by major publishers (JioHotstar, SonyLIV, Zee5).
- Content rating: U, U/A, and A ratings are populated by premium publishers — useful for category exclusions on family brands.
Contextual targeting does not require cookies, device IFAs, or personal data, making it DPDPA-safe and always available — even on opted-out devices or in co-viewing situations where multiple people share a screen and audience identity is ambiguous.
When to use contextual: as the primary targeting method for brand safety (restrict to appropriate content), when first-party data is thin or match rates are below 30%, and as a layered brand safety exclusion on top of all audience-targeted campaigns.
Related questions
- What are the targeting options for CTV in India?
- Can I use my CDP data for CTV advertising?
- What does DPDPA mean for CTV advertising?
For a full breakdown, see the contextual targeting in CTV knowledge base article.