A Private Marketplace (PMP) deal is a programmatic transaction where a publisher makes specific inventory available to selected buyers at a negotiated floor price, accessible via a unique deal ID. The buyer accesses this inventory through their DSP; the publisher sets the terms — floor CPM, inventory segments, targeting parameters — and passes a deal ID to the buyer. When the buyer activates the deal ID in their DSP, their bids compete in a private auction restricted to invited buyers, separate from the open auction. For CTV in India, PMP is the recommended deal structure for most brand and performance campaigns — it provides inventory quality guarantees that open auction cannot.
How a PMP deal works
- Negotiation: Buyer and publisher (or their SSP) agree on: floor CPM, inventory segment (e.g., all JioHotstar CTV, or sports only), targeting parameters (e.g., 25–44 age, Hindi language content), flight dates, and any reporting requirements.
- Deal ID creation: The publisher's SSP (Magnite, PubMatic) creates a deal ID — a unique alphanumeric string that represents the agreed terms in the bidding system.
- Deal ID activation: The buyer enters the deal ID in their DSP (DV360, TTD). The DSP recognises the deal ID in incoming bid requests from that publisher's SSP and applies the deal parameters.
- Auction execution: When a qualifying impression is available, the SSP sends a bid request flagged with the deal ID. The buyer's DSP bids if the impression matches the deal targeting. The bid must clear the negotiated floor. If the buyer wins, they pay their bid price (first-price auction).
- Reporting: The DSP shows deal-level reporting: impressions, spend, CPM, VCR. The publisher's SSP provides deal delivery confirmations.
The key distinction from programmatic guaranteed: PMP has no volume commitment. The buyer bids on available inventory and wins impressions when their bid clears the floor. There is no guarantee of a specific impression volume — underdelivery happens when the buyer's bids don't consistently clear the floor or when inventory matching their targeting is scarce.
PMP vs open auction for CTV
For India CTV, the case for PMP over open auction is strong:
- Inventory quality: PMP deals are restricted to the publisher's verified app inventory. Open auction CTV includes spoofed app IDs and fraudulent inventory that passes app allowlists imperfectly. IVT rates on PMP deals are typically 0.5–1%; open auction IVT without aggressive filtering can reach 5–8% in India.
- Content adjacency: PMP deals can be scoped to specific content categories (sports, drama, news) or even specific programmes. Open auction targeting is less granular — content object data is inconsistently populated by smaller publishers.
- CPM efficiency: Counter-intuitively, PMP CPMs are often more efficient than winning open auction bids for the same publisher. In open auction, multiple DSPs compete for a publisher's best inventory, driving clearing prices up. A PMP deal with a floor of Rs 350 CPM may clear at Rs 350–400; the same impression won via open auction in a competitive period may clear at Rs 500+.
- Measurement access: Third-party verification (IAS, DV post-bid) is more accessible on PMP inventory where the publisher has SDK integration. Open auction buys often lack this.
India CTV PMP benchmarks
Indicative PMP floor CPMs for India CTV (April 2026, subject to change):
- JioHotstar — general CTV inventory: Rs 350–500 CPM floor. Sports content (IPL, cricket): Rs 600–900 CPM floor during live events.
- SonyLIV — general CTV: Rs 300–450 CPM floor. Live sports (Sony Sports networks): Rs 500–750.
- Zee5 — general CTV: Rs 250–350 CPM floor.
- FAST channels (Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels): Rs 150–250 CPM floor via Magnite/PubMatic PMP. Quality varies by channel.
These are floor CPMs — winning bids need to clear the floor but may be higher in competitive auctions. PMP deals do not guarantee clearing at floor; if demand is high, winning prices rise above floor.
Setting up a PMP deal in India
The typical setup process for India CTV PMP:
- Contact the publisher's programmatic team (JioHotstar's programmatic sales, SonyLIV's digital revenue team) or their SSP representative (Magnite India, PubMatic India).
- Specify deal parameters: DSP, flight dates, budget range, targeting requirements (content category, language, device type), and floor CPM tolerance.
- Receive deal ID: The SSP creates the deal and sends the deal ID. For DV360, this is entered under Inventory → Deals. For TTD, under Inventory → My Inventory.
- Activate and test: Run a test with a small budget (Rs 25,000–50,000) for 48 hours to confirm the deal ID is firing correctly and impressions are delivering. Check DSP deal delivery report to confirm match.
- Scale: Once confirmed, increase budget. Monitor win rate (bids that clear the floor) and floor CPM relative to clearing price to identify whether to adjust bids.