A direct insertion order (IO) is a contract between advertiser and publisher — fixed price, fixed volume, fixed dates, executed by the publisher's ad ops team. Programmatic buying uses automated technology to purchase inventory via RTB or deal IDs, with real-time decisioning and DSP-side control. In India CTV, most large brand campaigns use both: direct IO for guaranteed premium placement and programmatic for audience-targeted scale. The question is not either/or but where each belongs in your media plan.
What direct IO gives you that programmatic cannot
Sponsorship and content integration: You cannot buy a title sponsorship of IPL on JioHotstar programmatically. Exclusive content associations, branded segments, and high-impact homepage takeovers require a direct relationship and a signed IO. Programmatic, by design, is impression-level — it cannot reserve a named content property.
Category exclusivity: In a direct IO, an advertiser can negotiate exclusivity — no competitor category ads for the duration of the campaign, or within a specific content vertical. This is structurally impossible in open programmatic, where the publisher has no control over which DSPs bid or what categories they represent.
Guaranteed delivery: A direct IO obligates the publisher to deliver the contracted impression volume by the campaign end date. If delivery falls short, the publisher makes good with bonus inventory. In programmatic (except PG), the buyer bids — and may not win enough impressions to hit their target, especially if budget is limited or audiences are narrow.
What programmatic gives you that direct IO cannot
Audience targeting across publishers: A PMP deal or open auction buy via a DSP lets you apply your own first-party data segments across multiple publishers simultaneously. A direct IO is with one publisher — if your target audience is fragmented across JioHotstar, Zee5, and smaller apps, direct IO with each becomes operationally intensive.
Real-time optimisation: Programmatic campaigns can adjust bids, pause underperforming placements, and shift budget between publishers in real time. A direct IO locks in placement and price for the flight duration — you cannot pull budget from an underperforming publisher mid-campaign.
Lower minimum spend: Most India CTV publishers require Rs 10–50 lakh minimum for a direct IO. Programmatic PMPs can be structured at lower minimums (Rs 2–5 lakh), and open auction has no floor at all.
How India CTV campaigns typically split between the two
A practical India CTV media plan for a large brand (Rs 1–5 crore budget) typically looks like this:
- 40–60% direct IO: JioHotstar IPL package, SonyLIV sports association, or platform-specific content deal. Used for reach, brand safety, and premium association.
- 30–40% PMP programmatic: Audience-targeted PMPs across 3–5 publishers via DSP. Used for efficiency, audience precision, and frequency management across the plan.
- 10–20% open auction: Incremental reach across mid-tier publishers, retargeting, or always-on presence between direct IO flights.
The India-specific consideration: publisher power
India's CTV market is more publisher-dominated than Western markets. JioHotstar controls an outsized share of CTV viewing — particularly live sports — and uses that leverage to make direct IO the preferred deal structure for their premium inventory. Advertisers who want IPL pre-roll at scale have little choice but to commit to a direct IO. Programmatic access to the same inventory exists but with limitations: narrower windows, higher floors, and often without the sponsorship benefits that justify premium CPMs.
This dynamic is shifting as programmatic infrastructure matures — but in 2026, treating direct IO as legacy and trying to buy everything programmatically will leave India CTV campaigns underdelivered on premium inventory.
Decision framework: which to use
- Use direct IO for: major event sponsorships, fixed launch dates, content integration, category exclusivity, guaranteed reach
- Use programmatic PMP for: audience-first campaigns, multi-publisher efficiency, test-and-learn, always-on activity
- Use open auction for: reach extension, retargeting, low-minimum entry into CTV