What is the minimum budget to run an India CTV campaign?
Minimum budgets depend on the buying method: (1) Programmatic open auction (DV360 or TTD self-serve) — no hard minimum, though a practical floor of ₹2–5 lakh per flight is needed to gather statistically meaningful delivery data and reach. Below this, impression counts are too small to optimise. (2) Programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals — most India CTV publishers require ₹10–50 lakh minimum commitment. JioHotstar’s PG minimums are at the higher end; smaller publishers have lower thresholds. (3) Direct IO deals — similar to PG minimums; ₹10 lakh is a typical entry point for a non-sports direct buy; IPL sponsorships start at ₹1–2 crore for associate packages. (4) Amazon DSP managed service — approximately USD 10,000–35,000 (₹8–29 lakh) minimum per campaign.
What does a ₹10 lakh India CTV budget actually buy?
At ₹10 lakh (INR 1 million) budget with a blended CPM of ₹200 (mix of programmatic open auction and one direct publisher): approximately 5 million CTV impressions. At an average frequency of 3x, this reaches approximately 1.6 million unique CTV households. For context: India has approximately 50–65 million addressable CTV households. A ₹10 lakh campaign reaches about 2–3% of that universe — meaningful for a targeted city or state campaign, thin for a national brand awareness objective. For national brand awareness with meaningful frequency (3–5x per household) across major metro markets, a ₹30–50 lakh budget is the practical entry point. Performance-oriented campaigns (app install, e-commerce) can operate at ₹10 lakh if targeting is precise enough to reach a high-intent sub-segment efficiently.
How should I allocate an India CTV budget across publishers?
A practical allocation framework for India CTV: For budgets below ₹10 lakh: single publisher direct buy or programmatic open auction via DV360 (YouTube CTV + third-party publishers). For budgets of ₹10–50 lakh: split 50–60% on JioHotstar (premium reach, sports adjacency if relevant), 20–30% on Sony LIV or Zee5 (incremental reach among entertainment viewers), 10–20% on programmatic open auction (YouTube CTV + other publishers) for cost-efficient frequency extension. For budgets above ₹50 lakh: add Samsung TV Plus (FAST inventory, incremental SEC B reach), consider Netflix CTV for premium urban audiences if relevant, and negotiate cross-publisher frequency capping through a single DSP to prevent overexposure on any one household.