CTV advertising has never used browser cookies. Smart TV apps do not run in browsers; there is no cookie jar, no third-party cookie to read, and no traditional identifier that web-era audience targeting relies on. This makes CTV a native cookieless environment — and for India advertisers rethinking audience strategy as web cookies disappear, CTV offers a model for what cookieless targeting looks like in practice.
CTV was always cookieless — what that means
On web and mobile web, audience targeting historically relied on third-party cookies to track users across sites and build behavioural profiles. CTV never had this. A smart TV app runs as a native application; there is no browser, no cookie, and no cross-app cookie tracking. Every CTV impression has always been targeted using non-cookie signals:
- Device IDs (GAID on Android TV, TIFA on Samsung, AFAI on Fire OS, LGUDID on LG)
- Content signals (what content the viewer is watching, content category, language)
- Contextual signals (app bundle ID, content metadata)
- Publisher first-party data (subscriber profile, viewing history)
- Household IP address (for geographic and household-level inference)
The cookieless future that web advertisers are anxiously preparing for is the present reality of CTV. Advertisers who have invested in CTV are already building the muscles — first-party data activation, contextual targeting, identity resolution without cookies — that the rest of digital advertising is now scrambling to develop.
Device ID targeting on India CTV
Device IDs are the closest CTV equivalent to cookies for persistent audience tracking and targeting. India CTV has four primary device ID schemas:
| Device ID | Platform | Resettable? | Programmatic availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| GAID (Google Advertising ID) | Android TV, Google TV | Yes — user can reset in settings | Widely available in DSPs |
| TIFA (Tizen IFA) | Samsung smart TV | Yes — user can reset or opt out | Available via Samsung Ads; limited in open DSPs |
| AFAI (Amazon Fire Advertising ID) | Amazon Fire TV | Yes — user can reset | Available in Amazon DSP; limited elsewhere |
| LGUDID | LG webOS | Partial | Available via LG Ads; limited in open DSPs |
The limitation of device ID targeting in India: these IDs are non-interoperable. A GAID cannot be matched to a TIFA without a device graph. Cross-platform frequency capping and reach deduplication using device IDs requires either a publisher-side identity match or a third-party device graph — neither of which is widely available for India CTV.
Contextual targeting on CTV
Contextual targeting — serving ads based on the content being watched rather than who is watching — is the most reliable targeting method on CTV because it requires no personal data. On India CTV, contextual targeting works at several levels:
App-level contextual: Target by app bundle ID (e.g., com.hotstar.android = JioHotstar). The highest confidence form of contextual targeting — you know exactly which app and platform your ad appears on. Available in all major DSPs.
Content category contextual: Target by IAB Content Taxonomy category (e.g., IAB17 = Sports, IAB1 = Arts and Entertainment). Requires publishers to populate content category fields in their OpenRTB bid requests. Coverage in India is uneven — JioHotstar and Zee5 are more consistent than smaller publishers.
Genre and content targeting: Some India publishers (JioHotstar, Samsung TV Plus) support more granular content targeting — cricket, movies, drama serials. Available through direct deals or the publisher's own ad manager, not always through open programmatic.
Language targeting: Targeting by content language (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi) is a contextual approach that correlates strongly with audience language identity. Available across major India OTT platforms.
First-party data activation on India CTV
First-party data — data you have collected directly from your customers with their consent — is the most defensible targeting approach on cookieless CTV. Activation pathways for India advertisers:
CRM audience matching via clean rooms: Upload your customer data (hashed email, phone) to a data clean room integrated with a publisher (JioHotstar, Samsung). The clean room matches your records against the publisher's subscriber database without exposing raw data. Matching rates in India are lower than the US (30–50% typical) due to the non-standardised identity layer, but matched audiences are high-quality.
DSP first-party audiences: Upload your CRM data to DV360 or The Trade Desk as a first-party audience. The DSP attempts to match against device IDs in its inventory through its identity resolution layer. For India CTV, The Trade Desk's UID2 framework is growing but not yet at scale; DV360 uses Google's identity matching for Android TV but has lower coverage on other platforms.
Website/app retargeting via IP: Match users who visited your website or app with CTV household impressions using household IP address. Not deterministic but provides reasonable household-level reach for India campaigns.
India cookieless future for CTV
India's advertising identity landscape is moving in a direction that makes CTV's cookieless model increasingly relevant across all digital channels. Key trends:
DPDPA consent requirements are pushing advertisers toward first-party data and away from third-party data built without clear consent — exactly the direction CTV targeting already operates in.
UID2 adoption in India is growing but early-stage. The Trade Desk's Universal ID 2.0 (email-based, consent-based identity solution) is being adopted by some India publishers. If it reaches critical mass, it will enable more consistent cross-platform identity on CTV without relying on device IDs.
Clean room infrastructure is expanding. Platforms like JioHotstar, Samsung, and major Indian banks/telcos are building or joining data clean rooms that allow advertisers to match first-party data without exposing raw records. This will be the primary sophisticated targeting mechanism for India CTV in 2026–2028.