Metro cities built India CTV. Tier 2 cities are now scaling it. Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Kochi, Surat — these cities have smart TV penetration growing faster than the national average, driven by rising incomes, Jio fiber expansion, and falling device prices. The audience they deliver is different from metro CTV, and planners who treat all CTV as metro-equivalent will misread their reach.
What defines Tier 2 CTV growth
Three forces are driving Tier 2 CTV adoption:
- Jio fiber expansion: Jio has aggressively expanded fiber broadband into cities and towns beyond metro areas. The Jio Set Top Box (JioTV+) brings OTT content to households that previously had no broadband — at bundle prices that make CTV accessible at SEC B and upper SEC C income levels.
- Smart TV price collapse: Entry-level Android smart TVs now start at ₹10,000–12,000. Xiaomi, TCL, Hisense, and even domestic brands like VU and Kodak have made smart TV ownership feasible for the middle class in smaller cities.
- Regional content growth: Every major platform now has substantial regional language content. This gives viewers in Indore (Hindi/Marwari), Coimbatore (Tamil), or Kochi (Malayalam) reasons to watch their preferred content on streaming rather than only linear DTH.
Who is the Tier 2 CTV viewer?
The Tier 2 CTV viewer differs from the metro CTV viewer in several important ways:
- Income: Slightly lower absolute household income than metro CTV, but high relative to Tier 2 city norms. They are the local upper-middle class — business owners, salaried professionals, government employees in senior grades.
- Content: Skews more heavily toward regional language drama, Hindi GEC content, and cricket. English-language original content (Netflix originals) has much lower penetration than in metros.
- Device: More likely to be using a set-top box (Jio, Airtel) or entry-level smart TV than a premium Samsung or LG. Less likely to have a streaming stick.
- Platform: JioHotstar dominates due to cricket + Hindi content + Jio bundle pricing. ZEE5 is strong for drama. YouTube is universal.
- Subscription rate: Lower than metro — more AVOD viewership and JioHotstar Cricket Pack (sports-only) subscriptions rather than full premium plans.
What Tier 2 means for advertisers
Tier 2 CTV is not currently separately purchased as a distinct segment on most platforms — it gets included in national or state-level buys. But understanding its presence matters:
- A national CTV buy in 2026 includes more Tier 2 reach than it did in 2023. Your CPM is buying a slightly broader audience than it used to.
- For brands with Tier 2 market ambitions (auto dealerships, FMCG expansion, financial services penetration), CTV now reaches meaningful Tier 2 volume — but the absolute numbers are still smaller than metro.
- Regional language targeting is the best proxy for Tier 2 audience isolation — a Tamil-language buy in Tamil Nadu skews Coimbatore, Salem, Madurai as well as Chennai.
- Creative assumptions matter: Tier 2 viewers are more price-sensitive and more influenced by aspirational/status messaging than metro audiences who have already arrived at the income level being targeted.
The trajectory: what Tier 2 CTV looks like in 2028
If current trends hold, Tier 2 cities will account for 30–35% of India's CTV impressions by 2028, up from ~20–25% in 2026. This will change the character of national CTV buys significantly — broadening income reach and language diversity. Planners should build Tier 2 assumptions into long-term CTV strategy now, before the shift becomes obvious in hindsight.