Smart TV manufacturers — Samsung, LG, and to a lesser extent Indian brands like Xiaomi and VU — operate their own advertising platforms that reach CTV audiences at the device and OS layer. OEM advertising is distinct from platform advertising (JioCinema, Hotstar, YouTube): instead of targeting viewers within a streaming app, OEM ads appear on the smart TV's home screen, within the native OS UI, or through ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) data that identifies what the TV screen is showing regardless of which app is active.
Samsung Ads in India
Samsung is India's largest smart TV brand by installed base. Samsung's Tizen OS smart TVs have ACR capability — the TV's operating system can recognise what content is being shown on screen, whether it is a streaming app, linear TV, gaming, or any other video source. This ACR data gives Samsung a unique view of total TV viewing behaviour that no streaming platform can replicate.
What Samsung Ads offers
- Home screen ads: Banner and video placements on the Samsung Smart TV home screen and within the Tizen app launcher. These are shown before the viewer has opened any streaming app — at the moment of TV turn-on.
- Smart Hub placements: Samsung Smart Hub is the content discovery interface on Tizen TVs. Advertising placements here appear when viewers are browsing for content to watch.
- ACR-based audience targeting: Samsung Ads uses ACR data to build audience segments based on what viewers have watched — which streaming platforms they use, which content genres they watch, whether they watch linear TV or exclusively stream. This enables targeting like "viewers who watched IPL on JioCinema" or "households that watch Hindi film content" without requiring data from JioCinema or Hotstar directly.
- Linear TV exposure data: Because ACR sees all content on screen (including HDMI input from a cable/satellite box), Samsung Ads can identify households that have seen a specific TV commercial on linear TV and retarget them on CTV — a cross-channel reach capability no streaming platform has.
India access for Samsung Ads
Samsung Ads has India operations and sells Samsung Ads India inventory directly and through select agency partners. The programmatic access to Samsung Ads is growing — Samsung participates in some PMP deals through premium SSPs — but direct or agency buying remains the primary route for Samsung Ads India inventory.
LG Ads in India
LG's webOS smart TVs are the second-largest smart TV OS in India. LG Ads (LG's advertising platform, part of LG Ad Solutions globally) offers similar capabilities to Samsung Ads: home screen placements, content discovery advertising, and ACR-based audience data.
LG Ads India is smaller in scale than Samsung Ads India, reflecting LG's smaller smart TV market share. But the capabilities are comparable: ACR-based targeting, home screen inventory, and some programmatic access through partner DSPs. LG's webOS user interface includes a content discovery section (LG Channels for FAST content, and the home screen app grid) where advertising appears.
Indian OEM brands: Xiaomi, VU, Thomson
Indian and Chinese OEM brands (Xiaomi/Mi, VU, Thomson, OnePlus) have significant smart TV market share in India, particularly in the entry-level segment. These TVs run Android TV (which uses Google's ad infrastructure) or, in some cases, proprietary OSes. Advertising on Xiaomi or VU smart TVs as an OEM channel is less developed than Samsung Ads or LG Ads — the primary ad access point for Android TV OEM inventory is through Google's platform stack (DV360, Google Ads) rather than the OEM directly.
Some Indian OEMs have home screen advertising on their proprietary interfaces, but these are not at the scale or sophistication of Samsung Ads or LG Ads for programmatic advertisers.
ACR advertising: the key OEM capability
ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) is the defining capability of OEM advertising that no streaming platform can replicate. Here's what makes it different:
- Platform-agnostic viewing data: ACR sees everything on the TV screen, regardless of source. A Samsung Tizen TV knows you watched Hotstar for two hours, then JioCinema for one hour, then switched to cable. No individual platform has this complete view.
- Linear TV exposure: ACR can identify that a household saw a specific linear TV ad (on Star Plus, Sony, Zee TV). CTV advertisers can use this to retarget households that saw a linear TV campaign — incrementally adding CTV reach on top of linear.
- Content consumption profile: ACR builds a rich content profile over time — genres watched, platforms used, day-part viewing habits. This creates targeting segments that cross platform boundaries.
In India, ACR-based targeting is in earlier stages of adoption compared to the US, where Samsung Ads' ACR capabilities are widely used. India's ACR opportunity is real but requires advertisers to engage with Samsung Ads directly, have a clear strategic use case (linear-to-CTV retargeting is the strongest), and accept some uncertainty around measurement on ACR-targeted campaigns.
When OEM advertising belongs in a CTV plan
- Linear TV extension: If you are running or have run a significant linear TV campaign (Star Plus, Sony, Zee TV, Colors), Samsung Ads' ACR retargeting lets you reach the same households on CTV — adding frequency without duplication. This is the strongest India CTV use case for OEM advertising.
- Upper funnel brand moments: Home screen placements on Samsung Smart Hub appear when viewers are deciding what to watch — a high-attention, low-competition moment. Good for brand awareness buys for new product launches or brand-building campaigns.
- Incremental reach beyond streaming platforms: Some households watch primarily through cable/satellite on their smart TV (HDMI input) and rarely open streaming apps. These households are invisible to streaming platform advertising but accessible through OEM ACR data.
OEM advertising is a secondary or tertiary layer in most India CTV plans — most campaigns start with JioCinema, Hotstar, and YouTube. But for brands with significant linear TV spend looking to build CTV presence efficiently, Samsung Ads' ACR capability makes OEM a strategically useful addition.