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Once the playground of tech-savvy early adopters and premium brands, Connected TV (CTV) in India has now shifted lanes, merging firmly into the mainstream of digital advertising. With over 50 million CTV households in 2025 and an ad spend nearing Rs 2,500 crore, the sector has evolved from experimental to essential. The scale is no longer a matter of speculation; it's a matter of strategic allocation.
The average Indian now spends over 3.5 hours daily on TV, with 80% of that time shared with a mobile device. That co-viewing behavior forms the basis for omnichannel engagement strategies. India’s CTV audience is projected to hit 60 million households by early 2026, according to recent industry estimates, with over 700 million minutes of daily streamed content being consumed across the top 15 cities.
“CTV has evolved from a niche channel to a core pillar of modern media strategies,” says Nikhil Kumar, Chief Growth Officer at mediasmart by Affle. “It merges the immersive storytelling of television with the precision of data-driven digital advertising.”
India is seeing a 21% year-on-year growth in CTV adoption, largely powered by smart TV penetration and an expansive content ecosystem that spans OTT, Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST), and digital news platforms. What was once considered a premium audience segment is now a mass-market opportunity. The transition is being led by programmatic platforms which have introduced CTV-first strategies in a market long dominated by linear television.
The difference, Kumar explains, lies in CTV’s ability to reach specific audiences with minimal wastage. “Programmatic buying, first-party data, and interactive formats make CTV uniquely measurable—a rare trait in the ad world.”
CTV In The Multi-Screen Mix
Rupak Ved, CBO and CEO-Media at LS Digital, concurs, noting, “CTV is changing digital advertising in India by combining television's scale and digital's precision.” He notes that sectors like Auto, FMCG, BFSI, and Entertainment are already embracing this. “Hyundai and Tata Motors use CTV for personalized messaging based on browsing behavior. Unilever uses hyper-local targeting to engage diverse regional audiences, and BFSI players like HDFC Bank and ICICI are integrating CTV with CRM systems to promote high-value financial products.”
The performance isn’t theoretical. Campaigns like HDFC Life and Samsung Ads have seen 94% video completion rates, while Tata AIG's CTV and YouTube combo delivered a 7.6% awareness lift and 17.1% ad recall lift. In a recent WARC report, India was highlighted as the fastest-growing CTV ad market in Asia-Pacific, with ad spends growing at a CAGR of over 45%.
“CTV is no longer just a branding tool; it’s evolving into a performance-driven channel,” Ved says. To that end, LS Digital’s CoMMeT platform is helping brands close the loop on attribution, tracking ad exposure across online and offline touchpoints.
Abhijeet Rajpurohit, Co-founder and COO at CloudTV, sees another critical evolution. “CTV gives digital-first and emerging brands access to the largest screen in the home. It merges the familiarity of TV with the intelligence of digital,” he says.
He emphasizes three strategic levers: geo-targeting, cohort-based audience targeting, and seasonal alignment. For Rajpurohit, the most underutilized but impactful placement is the CTV home page—the first impression when users open a streaming app. “It offers prime visibility and higher recall,” he notes.
Compared to its digital and traditional counterparts, CTV is growing at a blistering pace. With a projected CAGR exceeding 45%, India’s CTV ad spend is expected to reach ?3,500 crore by 2027—up from ?2,500 crore in 2025. This far outpaces linear TV advertising, which is witnessing a marginal decline in 2025, largely due to audience fragmentation and declining traction among urban, affluent segments. CTV, by contrast, continues to grow as smart TV ownership increases and viewers embrace digital-first, on-demand content experiences.
Other digital formats are also growing, but not as explosively. Retail media, for instance, accounted for 22.93% of total digital media spends in 2024, amounting to ?11,293 crore, reflecting a growth rate of 23.43% over the previous year. Social media advertising is projected to reach $1.63 billion in 2025, while digital video advertising continues to expand its footprint. Despite these increases, CTV's growth rate outpaces many of its counterparts, underscoring its emerging prominence.
CTV, benefiting from household-level targeting and stable device identifiers, offers advertisers a cleaner, more accountable canvas—marrying the scale of television with the precision of programmatic. In this climate, CTV is not just a fast grower—it’s becoming digital advertising’s most balanced and future-proof channel.
Beyond the Screen: From Engagement to Conversion
Industry experts agree that CTV works best when it's not treated as a silo. As Kumar puts it, “Today’s audiences engage with multiple screens throughout the day. CTV works best when combined with mobile, tablets, and DOOH.”
Through technologies like mediasmart's proprietary Household Sync, brands can craft sequential messaging strategies that begin on CTV and continue on mobile or desktop. The result? Higher engagement, stronger recall,
and measurable action.
This idea of cross-device synergy is becoming the norm. Rajpurohit underscores the need for sequential retargeting—where a CTV ad is followed up by mobile or web placements. It's this layering that transforms awareness into conversion.
Creative is also undergoing a renaissance. Static ads are on the way out. In their place are gamified experiences, dynamic overlays, and QR code-enabled shoppable ads. Nestlé and other FMCG giants are already deploying QRbased creative that allows users to scan and purchase products directly from their screens. Kumar agrees, adding that interactive formats like surveys and mini-games not only boost engagement but also facilitate first-party data collection. Brands can now know more than just if their ad was seen; they can learn who interacted with it, how, and when.
However, it’s not all fun and games. An anonymous brand marketer told us, “Connected TV plays a role in today’s media mix primarily as a high-quality distribution channel, not as an engagement platform. It helps us reach premium audiences with richer data, but the actual consumer interaction still happens on mobile. From a brand perspective, it’s a better billboard — not a touchpoint.”
“CTV on its own doesn’t move the needle—what matters is when it’s part of a household with multiple connected devices,” averred the head of marketing at a leading consumer tech brand. “We don’t look at CTV as a standalone play. The value emerges when the same user is engaged across screens, and we can create layered messaging or instant triggers. It’s not about the screen—it’s about the moment.”
Beyond creative innovation, the CTV ecosystem is also diversifying. Advertisers aren’t limited to OTT platforms anymore. OEMs, FAST channels, digital news apps, and even smart TV operating systems are offering inventory.
According to Kumar, combining content universe diversity with multi-screen technologies ensures that brands maintain visibility throughout a user’s entire viewing journey. Brands are also getting hyper-local with their targeting. Kumar shares an example: “By targeting 55-inch+ smart TVs in premium households across South Mumbai, coupled with frequent visits to luxury malls, brands can now reach not just demographics, but high-value, high-intent consumers.”
Of course, it all comes back to performance. Whether it's Unilever measuring regional impact, HDFC Bank integrating CRM touchpoints, or Tata AIG achieving significant brand lift, the message is clear: CTV is more than storytelling; it's commerce, data, and attribution.
“To fully leverage CTV, brands need to go beyond repurposing traditional TV ads,” Ved cautions. Instead, they must embrace the unique strengths of the format—audience targeting, creative optimisation, measurement, and integration. Those who treat CTV as just another screen will miss out. Those who recognize it as a performancedriven pillar of the media mix will lead the way.
CTV may have started as a shiny new toy for digital marketers, but in 2025, it's a full-fledged, ROI-obsessed, data-powered juggernaut. And it’s only picking up speed.
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