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In the past few weeks, we’ve looked closely at two of Indian advertising’s most prominent screen-based battlegrounds.
One, the rise of Connected TV as a brand-safe, precision-targetable haven blending digital’s control with television’s attention; the other, YouTube dominance and its surging revenues and growing dominance even on the biggest screen in the house.
What emerges from both stories is a sharp tension in Indian video advertising strategy: as more consumers stream content across devices, and more brands unlock budgets across screens, is this becoming a zero-sum game between YouTube and CTV platforms? Or are Indian advertisers learning to make both work in tandem?
Same Screens, Different Mindsets
“In India, it's not CTV versus YouTube; it's CTV plus YouTube,” says Karan Kumar, CMO of Hero Realty. “Content planners see them as parallel levers. YouTube remains dominant due to its scale, data, and ability to facilitate short-form engagement. However, CTV offers something else: lean-back attention, long-form storytelling, and near-cinema-quality in-home experiences.”
Kumar says the choice between them isn’t driven by cost but by mindset. “The media moment is different, and savvy marketers are mapping creative formats to media mindsets. In mature markets like the US, we have already seen this shift. Brands have reworked and bundled their sales strategies to include both traditional and CTV sometimes even carving out CTV-specific creative. Linear dollars are moving to streaming, not because it's cheaper, but because it's smarter. India will follow that trajectory, albeit with a lag of a few quarters and, of course, with significant local nuances added for added texture.”
Part of the confusion lies in the overlap. YouTube is arguably the biggest CTV app in India. According to Google India, over 40 percent of YouTube watch time in premium Indian households now happens on connected TVs. But advertisers still distinguish between YouTube on TV and “true” CTV buys, like inventory on Samsung TV Plus, Sony LIV, JioCinema or FAST channels.
“In my opinion, brands aren’t really seeing this as a choice between YouTube and CTV anymore because YouTube itself is a big part of CTV,” says Dev Batra, CEO and Chief Culture Guardian at Lyxel&Flamingo. “The big difference, however, is that one can build audience pool of intent / engaged audience in YouTube and then bring them down the funnel while for OTT it is not possible.”
According to eMarketer, worldwide CTV ad spend is expected to hit $48 billion in 2025, up from $36 billion in 2023. Closer home, GroupM India pegs CTV advertising at ?2,500 crore for 2025, growing at 45 percent year-onyear. Not just a trend, but a paradigm shift.
Batra adds, “Brands find that running traditional YouTube and CTV (YouTube on TV plus OTT apps) together works because they complement each other well. Traditional YouTube reaches people on mobile and desktop when they’re on the move or multitasking, while CTV catches viewers in a focused mindset on bigger screens.”
Objectives, Not Just Formats
The case for complementarity rests on the idea that YouTube and CTV serve different stages of the funnel.
“From my perspective, CTV and YouTube are largely serving complementary brand objectives, though there is increasing convergence in where video budgets are being spent,” says Kartik Mehta, Chief Business Officer, Channel Factory.
“CTV is primarily about building brand salience and capturing high attention in a lean-back environment like the living room. It mirrors traditional TV in terms of screen size and viewing behaviour but adds the precision of digital targeting. With innovations in addressable TV and audience segmentation, CTV is evolving into a premium storytelling medium,” he says.
As of June 2025, India has crossed 50 million connected TV households, up from 30 million just two years ago. Counterpoint Research projects that number to hit 65 million by the end of 2025, driven by sub-?20,000 smart TVs, deeper fibre penetration, and the bundling of devices like JioBharat and Airtel Xstream. The trend shows no sign of slowing: average year?on?year growth in CTV homes is now between 21percent and 35percent
“Interestingly, it’s not just long-form content—YouTube Shorts are also being watched on CTV, showing that even 1-minute snackable content is now a part of the living room experience,” adds Mehta.
At Libas, the distinction is baked into the brand’s strategy. “At Libas, we view CTV and platforms like YouTube as complementary—not competing—channels in our media mix,” says Nisha Khatri, Head of Marketing.
“YouTube and other mobile-first platforms continue to deliver unmatched reach and performance at scale, especially for driving lower-funnel action. CTV, on the other hand, offers us a premium storytelling canvas. It gives us access to a highly engaged, lean-back audience in a brand-safe environment—making it ideal for upper funnel objectives like brand building, category education, and lifestyle positioning,” says Khatri, adding that it's not about shifting budgets, but about allocating them more intelligently across the consumer touchpoints that matter.
The Jio Factor: Fuel for CTV, Pressure on Platforms
While YouTube’s scale is undeniable, CTV platforms are aggressively pushing their case for standalone value— and transparency is quickly becoming a key differentiator.
“JioStar’s decision to share user engagement data is a bold and reassuring step that signals a shift towards a more transparent digital advertising ecosystem,” says Russhabh R Thakkar, Founder and CEO, Frodoh. “The industry has been moving in this direction, with advertisers and agencies consistently pushing for deeper access to audience insights beyond impression and click-based metrics. By taking the lead, JioStar is setting a precedent that others will likely follow.”
He adds, “While the immediate impact will be felt in CTV, where engagement metrics have traditionally been opaque, the larger implication is that advertisers will now demand similar transparency across all digital channels — OTT, mobile, and even social media.”
Thakkar’s point suggests that CTV, once seen as a premium but unmeasured channel, is now being forced to match the measurability of platforms like YouTube—and that shift may blur the distinction between them even more.
Vibhor Mehrotra, Managing Partner at Innocean India, offers a functional lens, noting, “The CTV utilisation by the brands is largely driven by which level they are on digital maturity spectrum, audiences and objective they want to cater to and budgets at hand alongside content they want to have presence, plays a very important role too.”
“Currently in my view brands are moving towards CTV. A digital first brand with highly index digital spends would use CTV as an alternate to the linear TV advertising but a seasoned FMCG or BPC brand may use CTV to reach out to incremental audiences who are largely cord cutters (those who can’t be reached via linear TV ads) but with certain premium-ness attached with the content and CTV as a device, it’s seeing a significant growth across the brands in the Indian advertising space,” he adds.
As CTV’s infrastructure and data transparency improve, and as YouTube continues to blur the lines between mobile, desktop, and television, the answer to the question of competition versus complementarity becomes clearer.
They are not fighting for the same pie. They are baking different slices of the same screen.
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