The CTV ecosystem is the network of companies and technologies that connects a piece of video content on a streaming platform to an advertising impression in front of a viewer. It has two sides — supply (content, publishers, platforms) and demand (advertisers, agencies, DSPs) — joined by a layer of ad technology that handles the trading, delivery, and measurement of every ad impression. This article maps every participant in the ecosystem and explains how they interact.
The supply side: who creates CTV inventory
Content owners and studios
At the top of the supply chain are the entities that create or license video content — studios, production houses, sports rights holders, news organisations, and user-generated content creators. In India, this includes Jio Studios (Reliance), Star Studios (Disney), Zee Studios, Sony Pictures Networks, and thousands of independent content producers. Content owners either build their own streaming platforms, license content to platforms, or both.
Streaming platforms (publishers)
Streaming platforms distribute content to viewers and monetise it through subscriptions, advertising, or both. In the CTV ecosystem, platforms are the publishers — they own the viewer relationship and the ad inventory. Major India CTV publishers include:
- JioCinema (Reliance / Viacom18) — premium sports (IPL, Premier League), originals, free and paid tiers
- Disney+ Hotstar (The Walt Disney Company India) — Star content library, sports, originals
- SonyLIV (Sony Pictures Networks India) — sports, Sony channel content, originals
- Zee5 (Zee Entertainment) — Zee channel content, originals, regional language
- YouTube (Google) — user-generated and professional content, free AVOD, YouTube TV
- MX Player (Times Internet) — free AVOD, originals
- Amazon Prime Video — subscription-first with advertising tier
- Netflix — subscription with ad-supported tier (limited India programmatic access)
Each platform controls its own ad inventory. For CTV advertising, the platform is the gatekeeper — you cannot reach JioCinema viewers without going through JioCinema's ad infrastructure, either directly or through a channel the platform permits (programmatic, DSP deal).
Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels
FAST channels are linear-style, curated streaming channels that are free to watch and funded entirely by advertising. In India, Samsung TV Plus (on Tizen TVs) and LG Channels (on webOS TVs) are the primary FAST platforms. FAST is a growing but still relatively small segment of India CTV inventory compared to the dominant AVOD platforms.
The demand side: who buys CTV advertising
Advertisers (brands)
Brands are the ultimate buyers of CTV advertising — they fund the ecosystem. In India, the leading CTV advertising categories are FMCG, telecom, e-commerce, automobile, financial services, and consumer electronics. Brands either buy CTV directly through platform sales teams or through intermediaries (agencies, trading desks, DSPs).
Media agencies and buying groups
Most large advertisers in India use media agencies — GroupM, Publicis Media, IPG Mediabrands, dentsu, Madison — to plan and buy CTV campaigns. Agencies aggregate client budgets, negotiate platform deals, manage DSP buying, and handle campaign measurement. India's large agency holding groups have begun building CTV-specific practices, though specialised CTV expertise remains concentrated at senior levels.
Trading desks and programmatic buyers
Within agencies, programmatic trading desks handle the technical execution of DSP buying. In India, the major holding group trading desks — GroupM's Xaxis, Publicis's Epsilon / Digitas, dentsu's Merkle — run programmatic CTV buys on behalf of their clients. Independent trading desks and specialist programmatic agencies also operate in India, though the market is smaller than in the US or UK.
The ad technology layer
Between supply and demand sits the ad technology stack — the infrastructure that handles trading, delivery, targeting, and measurement. Understanding this layer is essential for anyone working in CTV beyond the brand or planner level.
Demand-side platforms (DSPs)
A DSP is software that allows advertisers and agencies to buy digital ad inventory programmatically — across multiple publishers and platforms — from a single interface. DSPs connect to supply-side platforms (SSPs) via real-time bidding (RTB) protocols. The DSP evaluates each available impression, decides whether to bid and at what price, and submits a bid to the auction.
Major DSPs used for India CTV buying include:
- Google DV360 (Display & Video 360) — most widely used in India for YouTube CTV and open programmatic
- The Trade Desk — strong for open programmatic CTV, growing India presence
- Amazon DSP — exclusive route to Fire TV and Prime Video programmatic
- MediaMath, Xandr (Microsoft) — used by some India agencies for cross-market CTV buys
- India-specific DSPs: mDSP (InMobi), Tyroo, and others with India-first inventory access
Supply-side platforms (SSPs)
An SSP is software used by publishers to manage, package, and sell their ad inventory programmatically. The SSP receives bid requests from multiple DSPs, runs the auction, and returns the winning bid to the publisher's ad server for delivery. Major SSPs used in India CTV include Google Ad Manager (GAM, also functions as the dominant publisher ad server), Magnite, PubMatic, SpotX (now Magnite), and FreeWheel (Comcast).
Ad servers
The ad server is the system that actually delivers the ad to the viewer's screen. On the publisher side, the ad server receives the winning bid from the SSP auction and instructs the video player to load and play the ad. Google Ad Manager is the dominant publisher ad server in India CTV. On the advertiser side, campaign ad servers (like Campaign Manager 360) track impressions, clicks, and video completion events for measurement.
Server-side ad insertion (SSAI)
SSAI is a delivery method where the ad is stitched into the video stream at the server level rather than loaded separately by the video player. This creates a seamless viewing experience — the ad plays as part of the stream, indistinguishable from content at the technical level. SSAI is the dominant ad delivery method for premium CTV publishers (JioCinema, Hotstar) because it reduces ad buffering and is much harder to block than client-side ad insertion. SSAI also complicates third-party measurement — the ad server cannot be called by external trackers in the same way as client-side delivery.
Data management platforms (DMPs) and CDPs
DMPs and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) sit alongside the buying stack and provide audience data for targeting. In CTV, first-party data from streaming platforms (viewer profiles, content preferences) is the most valuable data layer. Third-party DMPs are less relevant for CTV than for desktop/mobile because CTV device IDs (GAID, Amazon Advertising ID) do not map easily to cookie-based data.
Measurement and verification
Measurement vendors — Nielsen, BARC India, Comscore, DoubleVerify, IAS — provide independent reach, frequency, brand safety, and viewability measurement for CTV campaigns. In India, third-party CTV measurement is less mature than in the US. BARC India's digital measurement panel is the most established independent audience measurement for streaming, but it does not cover all platforms or all device types.
How the India CTV ecosystem differs from global
Several features of India's CTV ecosystem differ from the US or UK model that most global CTV frameworks assume:
- Walled gardens dominate: JioCinema, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video together account for the majority of India CTV viewing. These are walled gardens — they do not fully expose their inventory to open programmatic. Most India CTV buying happens through platform-direct deals or limited programmatic access, not open exchange.
- Sports rights concentration: IPL (JioCinema) and cricket more broadly drive disproportionate CTV viewing in India. During IPL season, CTV CPMs spike and inventory tightens significantly. Planning around this cycle is an India-specific skill.
- Measurement fragmentation: There is no single cross-platform measurement currency in India CTV. Each major platform reports its own numbers. BARC India covers some streaming but not all platforms. Cross-device attribution is limited. Advertisers building media mix models on India CTV data face significant measurement gaps.
- Agency dominance of programmatic: Independent programmatic buyers are less developed in India than in the US. Most large-scale CTV programmatic buying goes through holding group trading desks or large independent agencies. The self-serve DSP market is smaller.
- Co-viewing: Indian households have higher co-viewing rates than Western markets — multiple viewers per TV screen is the norm rather than the exception. This affects reach and frequency calculations. A 1x frequency cap on a household device may reach 3–4 viewers. India CTV measurement is beginning to account for this but standardised co-viewing adjustments are not yet common.