How does CTV advertising compare to linear TV advertising in India?

Linear TV and CTV differ across five dimensions in India: (1) Targeting — linear TV offers age, gender, and market (state/city) targeting via BARC audience data. CTV offers content genre, device type, geography (city and pin code), first-party data matching, and behavioural segments. (2) Measurement — linear TV is measured by BARC India’s panel (approximately 50,000 homes extrapolated to 200 million urban households). CTV is measured at impression level — every ad play is individually tracked. (3) Buying process — linear TV is bought via agencies through GRPs and share of voice negotiations with broadcasters. CTV is bought via IO, programmatic guaranteed, or open programmatic through DSPs. (4) CPMs — premium linear TV ranges ₹150–400 per thousand viewers; CTV premium ₹200–600 per thousand impressions. (5) Ad completion — linear TV ads can be muted or skipped (remote); CTV non-skippable formats have 85–95% completion rates.

For most large Indian brands, CTV should be bought in addition to linear TV as an incremental reach channel, not as a replacement. Linear TV in India still reaches 800 million+ viewers across urban and rural households — CTV’s addressable universe is 45–70 million urban households. The audiences overlap: frequent streaming households also watch linear TV. The strategic case for CTV: reach the 20–30% of target households (typically SEC A/B urban) who are light or non-linear TV viewers but heavy CTV users — this incremental reach is what justifies CTV’s premium CPMs. Brands with smaller budgets (below ₹2 crore per flight) should prioritise direct IO with one premium platform over spreading thin across multiple programmatic channels.

Current India market practice for large advertisers (FMCG, BFSI, auto): CTV typically represents 5–15% of total TV + digital video spend, rising from near-zero in 2022. The fastest-growing segment is brands shifting “incremental digital video” budget — money that would previously have gone to YouTube or digital display — toward CTV for its premium screen environment and brand safety. Smaller advertisers with limited national GRP buying are allocating 20–30% of TV-equivalent digital budgets to CTV. Agencies managing large TV budgets (GroupM, Publicis, IPG) have dedicated CTV planning teams that recommend CTV as a complement once linear TV reach among target demographics reaches diminishing returns — typically at 60–70 GRPs for 25–44 SEC A/B.