India's CTV programmatic buying landscape is dominated by a small number of agency trading desks and independent programmatic specialists. The "trading desk" in India CTV refers to the team or unit — within an agency holding company or operating independently — that executes programmatic buys on behalf of advertisers. Understanding who the key India CTV trading desks are, what DSPs they prefer, and how they access India CTV inventory shapes what is practically achievable through agency-managed campaigns.
Agency holding company trading desks in India
GroupM Nexus (WPP): GroupM's programmatic trading arm, operating across Mindshare, Wavemaker, EssenceMediacom, and other WPP agencies in India. GroupM Nexus is the largest programmatic buyer in India by spend and has preferred commercial agreements with major DSPs (DV360, TTD) and publishers. CTV buying is centralised through Nexus, which means CTV campaigns for GroupM clients flow through a desk with significant deal access and data partnerships.
Publicis Media Exchange (PMX): Publicis Groupe's trading infrastructure, operating across Starcom, Zenith, and Performics in India. PMX India has built out CTV capabilities and manages programmatic CTV across Publicis India clients. Uses DV360 and TTD as primary DSPs.
Magna / Initiative (IPG Mediabrands): IPG's India programmatic operations, including trading capabilities across Initiative and UM. Smaller India CTV volume than GroupM or Publicis but growing.
Dentsu X / iProspect (Dentsu): Dentsu's India trading capabilities span programmatic display and CTV, with DV360 as the primary platform.
Independent and specialist programmatic traders
Several independent programmatic specialists in India execute CTV campaigns outside of agency holding company structures:
Xapads, Vdo.ai, InMobi Exchange: India-headquartered programmatic platforms with CTV supply integrations. These operate as both technology vendors and managed service providers for mid-market advertisers who lack access to GroupM/Publicis-scale deal infrastructure.
Lemma Technologies: India-based CTV-focused programmatic platform with direct publisher integrations in the India market. Offers both self-serve and managed service CTV buying.
DSP preferences in India CTV trading
| Trading desk type | Primary DSP | Secondary DSP |
|---|---|---|
| Agency holding company (GroupM, Publicis, IPG, Dentsu) | DV360 | The Trade Desk |
| Performance-focused advertisers (D2C, e-commerce) | The Trade Desk | DV360, Amazon DSP |
| Mid-market / independent | DV360 or TTD | Lemma, Xapads |
| JioHotstar direct | JioHotstar programmatic | N/A (walled garden) |
What India trading desks can and cannot do for CTV
Agency trading desks in India can access programmatic CTV inventory on Zee5, SonyLIV, MX Player, and Samsung TV Plus through DV360 and TTD with relative ease, using PMP deals established through publisher relationships. They can execute audience targeting using DSP modelled segments and geographic targeting.
What they cannot do independently: access the full JioHotstar inventory (which requires a direct relationship with JioHotstar's advertising team); activate first-party data on JioHotstar (requires a JioHotstar clean room arrangement); and achieve cross-publisher reach deduplication with full accuracy.
India CTV trading desk fees
Agency trading desk fees for managed CTV campaigns in India typically range from 10–20% of media spend as a tech and service fee, on top of the publisher CPM. Independent specialists charge similarly. DV360 and TTD platform fees of 5–15% are charged separately by the DSP. Total buy-side cost — publisher CPM + DSP fee + trading desk fee — often represents 125–140% of the base CPM cost, which is an important consideration when benchmarking India CTV CPMs against all-in cost.