Most India CTV programmatic spend flows through agency trading desks, not direct advertiser-managed DSP seats. GroupM's Xaxis, Publicis Media Exchange (PMX), IPG's Kinesso, and Dentsu's Merkle are the dominant ATDs managing India CTV buys for their holding company clients. Understanding how ATDs buy CTV — what inventory they access, how they use data, and how their fee structures work — matters for brand-side marketers who want to understand the value chain between their budget and the publisher.
What is an agency trading desk and how does it work?
An agency trading desk (ATD) is a centralised programmatic buying unit within a holding company group. Instead of each media agency within the group managing its own DSP seats, the ATD operates shared infrastructure — DSP licences, data integrations, and publisher deal relationships — across all clients. Individual campaign media planners work with the ATD to execute buys, rather than directly accessing DSP interfaces themselves.
ATDs operate on two primary models:
- Principal model (ATD buys inventory on its own account, resells to client): The ATD takes a principal position — it buys inventory at one price and charges the client a higher price. The margin is the ATD's revenue. This model is common for volume-discount deals where the ATD negotiates bulk pricing with publishers.
- Agency model (ATD buys on behalf of client, charges a fee): The ATD acts as agent — all inventory costs pass through to the client, and the ATD charges a service fee (percentage of media spend, typically 5–15%). More transparent but requires the client to fund the media buy upfront.
India ATD landscape for CTV
Xaxis (GroupM): The largest ATD by India billings. Xaxis operates DV360 and The Trade Desk seats for GroupM clients — Mindshare, Wavemaker, EssenceMediacom, mSix&Partners. For CTV, Xaxis has negotiated group-level PMPs with JioHotstar, SonyLIV, and Zee5 that GroupM clients access at preferential CPMs. Xaxis's data layer uses GroupM's Choreograph identity platform, which attempts to stitch cross-device identity including CTV.
Publicis Media Exchange (PMX): Operates across Starcom, Zenith, and Spark Foundry clients. PMX India has CTV-specific deals through DV360 and TTD. Publicis has invested in Epsilon's data infrastructure for identity resolution, which extends to India CTV with varying match rates.
Kinesso (IPG): The performance and programmatic arm of IPG, operating for Initiative, UM, and Mediabrands clients. Kinesso India operates DV360 primarily. CTV capabilities are present but generally less scaled than GroupM or Publicis.
Dentsu's programmatic units: Carat and iProspect clients use Dentsu's programmatic infrastructure, which includes DV360 and TTD seats. Dentsu has Merkle-linked data capabilities for audience matching, though India CTV identity matching through Merkle is limited compared to Western markets.
How ATDs access India CTV inventory
ATDs access CTV inventory through three routes, which they combine depending on the campaign:
- Group-level PMPs: The ATD negotiates a deal ID directly with JioHotstar, SonyLIV, or Zee5 at the group level. Individual client campaigns activate this deal ID in the DSP without needing to negotiate a separate deal. This gives smaller clients within the group access to publisher-agreed floor prices and inventory quality that they could not negotiate individually.
- Open programmatic via DSP: The ATD uses DV360 or TTD to bid on open CTV inventory. This is the most flexible but least guaranteed approach — CPMs float with auction dynamics.
- Direct IO facilitation: For large clients, the ATD facilitates a direct IO deal between the client and publisher. The ATD handles trafficking, creative management, and reporting, but the deal is technically between client and publisher.
ATD vs self-serve DSP for India CTV: which makes more sense?
The ATD model offers three advantages over self-serve for India CTV: access to group-level PMPs, scale-based CPM efficiencies, and operational bandwidth (DSP setup, VAST troubleshooting, publisher reporting reconciliation). For advertisers spending under ₹5 crore per year on CTV, the ATD infrastructure benefit generally outweighs the fee cost.
Self-serve DSP access makes more sense when: the advertiser has internal programmatic expertise, wants direct visibility into bid-level data that ATDs may aggregate, needs custom audience data integrations that the ATD does not support, or wants to avoid the principal model margin. Large-spend advertisers who have transparency concerns about the principal model increasingly request direct DSP access alongside ATD services.
Questions advertisers should ask their ATD about CTV
- Are you buying on a principal or agency basis for this CTV buy? Understand whether there is an ATD margin built into the CPM you are being charged.
- Which deal IDs are being used, and can we see the publisher-reported impression numbers? Reconciling DSP delivery against publisher delivery is a basic transparency requirement.
- What is the VAST error rate on this campaign, and which publisher/device combinations are driving errors? ATDs often do not proactively surface VAST error reports; ask explicitly.
- Is audience targeting on this CTV buy device-level or user-level? Some ATDs report audience segments applied to CTV as if they were user-level, when they are actually probabilistic device-household matches.
- What is the frequency cap strategy, and how is it enforced across publishers? Cross-publisher frequency capping on India CTV is not solved — ask how the ATD manages frequency across JioHotstar and SonyLIV simultaneously.