Direct sales and programmatic are not mutually exclusive for CTV publishers — the right answer for most is a hybrid approach. Direct sales delivers higher CPMs and better control over advertiser quality, but it requires a sales team, existing agency relationships, and sufficient scale to justify an advertiser's attention. Programmatic provides efficient yield on inventory that would otherwise go unsold, but at lower CPMs and with less control over which ads appear against your content.
For a mid-size India CTV publisher — say, a regional-language OTT with 2–5 million monthly CTV viewers — the practical framework is: build direct relationships for your premium inventory (high-engagement content, tentpole moments, defined audience segments) and use programmatic to fill the remainder. Direct-sold inventory priced at a negotiated fixed CPM will consistently outperform open-auction programmatic for the same impression. The challenge is that direct sales takes time, relationships, and a credible pitch to agencies. Publishers without those assets cannot rely on direct alone.
Programmatic private marketplace (PMP) deals offer a middle ground: the efficiency of programmatic execution with CPMs closer to direct rates. Indian CTV publishers who can structure PMP deals with large agency trading desks — offering defined audience segments, brand-safe environments, and verified inventory — can achieve meaningful yield improvement over open auction without the full overhead of a direct sales operation. For India CTV publishers in 2026, PMP is underutilised and represents the highest near-term yield improvement opportunity for mid-size players.
Full guide
For a complete explanation, read: Direct sales vs programmatic for CTV publishers in India: which earns more?