Connected TV is no longer a niche line in India’s media plans. New data shared by Ranjana Mangla, head of digital ad sales and YouTube business at Sony Pictures Networks India, puts CTV at 207 million viewers across an estimated 62–65 million households. The audience has tripled since 2022, and viewers now spend an average of 2.9 hours a day on the screen.
The more important signal is where the growth is coming from. CTV adoption is no longer limited to the top metros; it is now visible across mini-metros, smaller towns and rural markets. For brand teams, that shifts CTV from a test budget to a core reach channel.
Reach has not become optional
It can be tempting to assume that better targeting automatically produces better results. But in a market as large and diverse as India, mass awareness still depends on reaching a lot of people quickly. CTV increasingly drives prime-time viewing patterns, which means it can deliver television-style reach while carrying digital audience signals.
That distinction matters. CTV is not digital advertising simply projected onto a bigger screen. It is television’s scale with digital’s measurement and addressability layered on top.
Context can change how an ad lands
Mangla highlights a second lever that many media plans undervalue: content context. A viewer watching a sports final, a quiz show or a business reality series is in a different frame of mind, and that environment can influence how an advertisement is received.
She compares this to premium retail real estate, where the surrounding space adds to an asset’s value. On CTV, premium content gives brands a stronger environment to communicate in, especially when paired with audience insight.
Consumers do not plan by screen
Audiences move between devices in ways that media silos often ignore. A person may discover a show on a phone, continue on another device and later watch a live event on CTV. The screen changes with the moment and the content.
For media planners, that suggests a more integrated approach:
- Plan CTV and mobile together around the consumer journey, not as isolated budgets.
- Use mobile for discovery and engagement, and CTV for immersive reach in premium content.
- Treat content context as a media variable, not just an audience-targeting overlay.
- Test formats beyond the standard ad break, including integrations, contextual placements and interactive units.
The fundamentals have not changed. Brands still want effective reach, quality audiences, engagement and measurable business outcomes. What CTV adds is flexibility in how those objectives are delivered, and a larger role for broadcasters as connectors of audiences, content and platforms.
For advertisers, the practical shift is to stop treating reach and precision as a trade-off. The opportunity lies in combining digital’s audience understanding and measurability with the scale and shared viewing that television has built over decades.
Source: ETBrandEquity.com
