GroupM is WPP's media investment group and India's largest media buying entity by billings — commanding roughly 35–40% of India's total media spending through its agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, MediaCom, and EssenceMediacom. Understanding how GroupM structures its CTV buying in India is useful both for publishers who want GroupM's clients' budgets and for brands trying to understand how their CTV spend flows through the GroupM system.
GroupM's agency structure for CTV
GroupM's India media agencies operate with distinct client mandates but share infrastructure through GroupM's central trading and technology arm:
- Mindshare: GroupM's largest India agency. Handles major FMCG, auto, and telecom accounts. CTV planning is led by Mindshare's video and digital specialists, with programmatic execution handled jointly with Xaxis.
- Wavemaker: Focuses on purchase-journey planning. Strong in BFSI, pharma, and consumer tech. Increasingly uses CTV for lower-funnel video touchpoints alongside search and social.
- MediaCom: Strong in sports, entertainment, and FMCG. One of the more active GroupM agencies in India CTV, particularly for IPL and cricket-adjacent inventory.
- EssenceMediacom: Merged entity (Essence + MediaCom globally). Handles Google and large tech clients. Manages significant YouTube CTV spend through DV360.
Xaxis: GroupM's programmatic trading desk
Xaxis is GroupM's programmatic arm and the centralised execution layer for all GroupM agency programmatic buying in India, including CTV. Rather than each agency running its own DV360 or DSP seats, Xaxis manages the technology relationships, deal catalogue, and trading operations centrally.
For publishers, this means: if you want your inventory in front of GroupM clients, the most efficient path is through Xaxis India, not through individual agency traders. Xaxis manages a curated deal catalogue of India CTV publisher PMPs that it makes available to GroupM agencies when they brief programmatic CTV campaigns.
Xaxis primarily uses DV360 for India CTV programmatic, with Amazon DSP for e-commerce clients and select The Trade Desk usage for clients who require an independent supply chain.
How GroupM plans and buys CTV for large clients
A typical GroupM CTV planning process for a large India brand (Rs 5 crore+ campaign):
- Agency video planner recommends CTV as part of the video plan. CTV is usually positioned alongside YouTube CTV and digital video — not as a standalone.
- Direct IO negotiation with JioHotstar and SonyLIV for premium sponsorship and guaranteed inventory. These are managed by agency investment teams, not programmatic teams.
- Xaxis sets up programmatic deals: PMP deal IDs from Magnite/PubMatic for third-party CTV publishers, plus DV360 open auction for reach extension.
- Campaign trafficking and optimisation handled by Xaxis traders. Reporting delivered weekly to agency client team.
What GroupM looks for from CTV publishers
From conversations with GroupM's India programmatic teams, the key factors for inclusion in GroupM's deal catalogue:
- Minimum 500K registered users: Below this, audience segments are too small to be useful across GroupM's client base
- GAM + Magnite or PubMatic integration: GroupM's Xaxis primarily buys through DV360 which connects to these SSPs
- Verified audience data: Publishers who can provide registration-based audience segments (not just device-level inference) get priority deal allocation
- IAS or DoubleVerify brand safety: GroupM requires third-party brand safety verification on all programmatic buys; publishers without this integration will not be included in GroupM deals
- Transparent reporting: Deal-level win rate, VCR, and frequency data shared with Xaxis on a weekly basis