Brands spent $57 mn to target India's 22 mn CTV households in 2022: GroupM report

GroupM’s newly launched addressable TV vertical Finecast predicts that in 2023, advertisers will spend about $86 million on connected TV (CTV) advertising in India. In a report on the addressable TV market in the country, the media-buying network and market research firm Kantar estimate that India’s CTV ad spending will grow at a CAGR of 47% between 2022 and 2027. 

Atique Kazi, president - data, performance and digital products, GroupM, observed, “If convenience is driving audiences towards CTV, addressability is driving advertisers to CTVs. India is poised to be the third-largest CTV advertising market by 2024.” 

CTV advertising refers to the ads on television that are connected to the Internet either through streaming devices like the fire stick and smart TVs, or the ads delivered on OTT platforms viewed on TV. 

In India, CTV ads can be served on Samsung smart TVs, OTT platforms like Disney+ Hotstar, Voot, MX Player and SonyLIV, or through devices like the Amazon Fire Stick. 

As per GroupM’s estimates, India has 20-22 million addressable TV homes. This accounts for more than 10% of total TV homes. India has about 210 million TV households. By 2025, India’s CTV households could swell to 40 million. By 2027, Indian brands will spend $395 million on CTV advertising.

Speaking about the benefits of advertising on CTVs, Nicola Lewis, global CEO, Finecast, said, “Research shows that overall TV delivered the highest levels of active attention and OTT delivered 20% more active attention than the linear environment.” Lewis felt that Netflix’s decision to run ads is one that other OTT players will follow; opening up premium OTT platforms to brands and advertisers. 

This additional medium that offers incremental reach poses a new challenge to media planners and brands, i.e., finding the optimal mix of linear and CTV advertising to deliver the reach and frequency the brand desires. 

Diving deeper into viewership habits, Harsh Deep Chhabra, senior vice president, Mindshare, said, “Linear TV continues to be pertinent to consumers at the middle and bottom of the pyramid, while it is consumers at the top of the pyramid who are adopting CTV and other forms of Interned-based entertainment at a greater pace.”

Chhabra added that the mediums to deliver video advertising are rapidly changing for brands, especially at the top of the pyramid. According to data presented by Chhabra, in NCCS A1 markets, TV has 97% penetration, while Internet and mobile have 95% and 88% penetration, respectively. This shows that there is a mere 2% difference between the universe of consumers who can be targeted on linear TV and the Internet in the NCCS A1 markets. This, Chhabra said, presents a dichotomy to media planners, because viewers are not stopping all TV content consumption.

At the same time, "75% of consumers at the top of the pyramid are either not consuming linear TV at all or are light consumers," he said.

In NCCS B/C, television penetration stands at 82%, while that of Internet and mobile is at the 45% mark. It is in this market where linear TV continues to be important, Chhabra said. Linear TV viewers also tend to be older, he pointed out. 

CTV ads can be customised and geo-targeted to specific cities. Advancements like automatic content recognition and shoppable ads are expected to make CTV advertising more enticing to advertisers.