CPM (cost per mille / cost per thousand impressions) is the standard media buying currency — the price paid per 1,000 ad deliveries regardless of whether they were watched to completion. India CTV programmatic CPMs range from INR 80 (open auction, long-tail) to INR 600+ (premium live sports PMP). CPCV (cost per completed view) measures the cost per ad that was watched to 100% completion: CPCV = CPM ÷ (VCR% × 10). If your CPM is INR 300 and VCR is 90%, your CPCV is INR 33.3 per completed view. CPCV is the more meaningful efficiency metric for CTV because it normalises for delivery quality — an INR 200 CPM with 70% VCR (CPCV INR 28.6) is less efficient than INR 300 CPM with 95% VCR (CPCV INR 31.6). CPV (cost per view) is typically used on YouTube for TrueView skippable formats where a view is counted at 30 seconds or video end — not the same as CPCV, which requires 100% completion.
For India CTV planning, the recommended practice: plan on CPM (how you budget and book inventory), report on CPCV (how you evaluate campaign efficiency against alternatives), and use VCR as the primary quality health metric during the campaign. When comparing publishers or deal types, always convert to CPCV for apples-to-apples comparison — a publisher quoting INR 150 CPM with 75% VCR (CPCV INR 20) may be less efficient than INR 300 CPM with 95% VCR (CPCV INR 31.6) if the first publisher's demographics are lower quality. Factor audience quality and verification status into the comparison, not just CPM.
Full guide
For a complete explanation, read: CPM, CPCV, and CPV for CTV advertising: which metric to use and how to compare publishers