CTV advertising in India is video advertising on internet-connected TV sets, bought through streaming apps, free ad-supported channels and Smart TV home screens. India had about 68 million connected TV households in 2025, with around 40 million active each week. Planners buy it by audience, city and daypart, and measure it on reach, attention and brand lift.
What is CTV advertising?
Connected TV (CTV) advertising is video advertising delivered over the internet to a television screen. The TV can be a Smart TV, or a regular set connected through a streaming stick, a gaming console or an internet set-top box. The IAB Europe Guide to CTV defines CTV as a subset of OTT: OTT is any video delivered over the internet, on any screen, while CTV is OTT watched on the big screen.
Three terms often get mixed up in Indian media plans:
For a planner, the short version is this: CTV advertising is digital buying on a broadcast-sized screen.
How big is connected TV in India in 2026?
Connected TV is the fastest-growing part of television in India. The FICCI-EY Media & Entertainment Report 2026, released in March 2026, reports these figures:
TV viewing is moving to the internet, not away from the TV set. The same report, citing Ormax Media, puts India's connected TV audience at 129 million viewers in 2025, up from 70 million in 2024. That figure counts people, not homes, which is why co-viewing matters so much on CTV.
"I think CTV has moved beyond being just another video placement. As more viewing happens on connected TVs and OTT platforms, brands have an opportunity to create a proper big-screen experience at home. The real value comes when CTV is planned alongside mobile and online video, with each screen playing a clear role."
— Captain Saurabh, Founder, Visora
How is CTV different from linear TV and mobile video?
CTV combines the big-screen, shared viewing of television with the targeting and impression-level reporting of digital video. The table compares the three video options an Indian planner usually weighs.
| Linear TV | Connected TV (CTV) | Mobile and web video | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | TV set, broadcast feed | TV set, internet feed | Phone or laptop |
| Viewing | Shared, lean-back | Shared, lean-back | Mostly personal, often on the move |
| Targeting | Channel, programme, broad demographics | Audience, city, device, daypart, household | Audience, context, location |
| Buying | Spots and sponsorships from broadcasters | Direct deals, programmatic, TV-brand placements, networks | Mostly programmatic and self-serve |
| Measurement | Panel-based TV ratings | Impression-level delivery, completion, attention, brand lift | Impression-level delivery, completion, clicks |
| Ad environment | Full screen | Full screen, built for sound-on viewing | Often small, muted or partly out of view |
In Visora's own campaign data, fewer than half of non-CTV video impressions began in a state where anyone could both see and hear them (Visora, August 2026).
Where do CTV ads run in India?
CTV ad inventory in India sits in four main places:
Most of this inventory reaches Smart TV sets; the rest arrives through streaming sticks and internet set-top boxes. The practical problem for planners is fragmentation: each app and each TV brand sells separately, with its own audience data and its own frequency cap.
How do agency planners buy CTV in India?
Agency planners buy CTV advertising in India through four routes:
1. **Direct with a publisher:** an insertion order with one streaming app, often for a sponsorship or a live event. Control is high, but frequency is capped only inside that app.
2. **Programmatic guaranteed or private marketplace (PMP):** pre-agreed CTV deals run through a DSP. The IAB Europe guide notes that CTV is "not widely available in the open market", and that private marketplaces help buyers reach quality CTV inventory.
3. **TV-brand placements:** home-screen and boot-up formats bought from the TV maker, usually at a fixed price for a fixed period.
4. **A CTV network:** one plan across many publishers, with one audience setup, one report and one frequency cap across all of them.
How is CTV advertising priced in India?
CTV advertising in India is priced in three main ways:
Four factors move the price of a CTV plan up or down:
Compare CTV plans on cost per household reached and attention delivered, not on CPM alone.
How do you measure a CTV campaign in India?
A CTV awareness campaign is measured on whether the right households saw and heard the ad, and whether the ad moved memory of the brand. Clicks are the wrong metric on a TV screen. Planners should track five measures:
Visora's own data shows why completion rate alone is not enough. In a 2026 financial services campaign of about 1.01 million video impressions, CTV looked 1.4x better than non-CTV video on completion rate, but 1.9x better on audible-and-visible seconds delivered (Visora, August 2026).
Two rules shape CTV measurement. The MRC guidance on server-side ad insertion and OTT (August 2021) asks measurement vendors to disclose and quantify where CTV ads cannot be measured. In India, the Television Rating Policy 2026 requires technology-neutral audience measurement across cable, DTH, OTT and connected TVs. As of 24 July 2026, the government said no agency had yet registered under the new policy (PIB, 24 July 2026).
"I start by asking what the campaign is supposed to achieve. For awareness, I look at completed views, VTR, reach and frequency, along with brand lift or recall studies where available. For example, in our boAt campaign across eight metros, CTV delivered a 96.38% VTR and 0.89 million-plus platform-level reach. Those are campaign-specific results, not a universal benchmark."
— Captain Saurabh, Founder, Visora
Why does Visora plan CTV around the household, not the device?
Indian families watch connected TV together: one Smart TV in the living room reaches several family members at once, and the same family also uses phones, laptops and smart speakers. A device-level plan treats each screen as a separate person. A household-level plan treats the home as the unit, and caps frequency for the whole family across all its screens.
Visora's Echosphere is built on this idea. Echosphere identifies a verified household, classifies it by NCCS affluence, and runs one brand story across that household's Smart TV, mobile, display and audio screens, with frequency capped at the household level (Visora cross-device household targeting).
"A household might have one TV, multiple smartphones and laptops. If you plan only around individual devices, you can end up repeatedly reaching the same home without understanding your actual household reach. At Visora, the household-first approach helps us manage frequency across screens and build a more connected brand experience."
— Captain Saurabh, Founder, Visora
Visora offers three CTV-led options:
How did the household approach work for boAt?
boAt ran a 24-day cross-screen awareness campaign with Visora across connected TV, video and display in India's eight largest metros, from 8 to 31 August 2026. Visora capped connected TV at 2x frequency, and video and display at 4x, to buy distinct reach rather than repeat exposure. Connected TV was the largest single format, at 41% of planned impressions, and delivery was concentrated in evening co-viewing hours.
Reach figures are platform-level and not deduplicated across formats, so they cannot be added together. These are results from one campaign, not a benchmark for every CTV plan (source: Visora boAt case study, 2026).
What mistakes do planners make when buying CTV in India?
Five mistakes come up again and again in first-time CTV plans:
"The most common mistake is treating CTV like mobile video and judging it mainly by clicks or CTR. CTV is primarily an awareness medium, so planners should look at completed views, household reach and frequency instead of applying the same benchmarks to every screen."
— Captain Saurabh, Founder, Visora
How do you add CTV to an awareness plan next quarter?
Agency planners can add CTV to an awareness plan in six steps:
1. Define the household the brand needs to reach: city, affluence band and life stage.
2. Choose the job for CTV: big-screen reach, or one story across the household's screens.
3. Brief creative for the big screen, not a resized mobile edit.
4. Set one frequency cap across all publishers and screens.
5. Agree measurement before launch: incremental reach, attention and a Brand Lift Study.
6. Agree the flight length with the measurement partner, so the Brand Lift Study has enough exposed households to read.
"Don't add CTV to a plan just because there's budget left for video. Decide what role it should play, define your audience and reach goals, set sensible frequency caps, and use creative designed for the big screen. Most importantly, agree on how you'll measure success before the campaign goes live."
— Captain Saurabh, Founder, Visora
Frequently asked questions
Is CTV the same as OTT?
No. OTT is any video delivered over the internet, on any screen. CTV is OTT video watched on a television set, so every CTV ad is an OTT ad, but not every OTT ad is a CTV ad.
How many connected TV households are there in India?
India had about 68 million connected TV households in 2025, with around 40 million active each week, according to the FICCI-EY Media & Entertainment Report 2026. The report expects more than 90 million by 2028.
Can CTV ads be targeted by city in India?
Yes. CTV campaigns in India can be targeted by city, as well as by audience segment, device and daypart. Household-level products such as Visora's Echosphere also target by NCCS affluence band.
What ad length works best on CTV?
Non-skippable 15, 20 and 30-second spots are the standard. Viewers sit about ten feet from the screen, so use large text, keep the brand visible and re-master mobile edits for the TV.
Is CTV part of TV ratings in India?
Not yet as standard. The Television Rating Policy 2026 requires measurement that includes connected TVs, but as of 24 July 2026 no agency had registered under it. Today CTV is measured with impression-level delivery data, attention metrics and Brand Lift Studies.
**Read next:** Connected TV and Smart TV targeting · Cross-device household targeting · How to measure attention in CTV campaigns
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