Ahead of the festive season, connected TV (CTV) looks set to become a major disruptor with advertisers making big bets on the medium, shifting budgets away from linear TV. Industry experts reckon that brands are earmarking between 30% and 50% of their digital ad budgets on CTV, upping their investments by 30-35% over last year’s festive season.
As per industry estimates, CTV advertising grew from Rs 450 crore in 2022 to Rs 1,500 crore in 2024. It is expected to reach Rs 3,500 crore in the next couple of years. CTV households have also grown to 50 million this year, up from 10 million around three years ago.
With this growth trajectory, it is little wonder then that FMCG major Godrej Consumer allocates around 80-85% of its internet ad investments towards CTV. Parle Products too has reportedly redirected about 15-20% of its HD linear TV ad spends towards the medium.
FMCG players
It’s not just the FMCG players, According to Russhabh R Thakkar, founder & CEO, Frodoh, auto brands now channel around 20-25% of their video budgets towards CTV. “For brands like Orient Electric and boAt, CTV is no longer experimental but rather central to the marketing plan, targeting affluent and urban households with measurable outcomes. While linear is still big in sheer numbers, CTV is capturing disproportionate mindshare and marketing rupees, as it delivers both quality attention and digital-style measurement,” remarks Thakkar.
While the growth of CTV is a big reason for brands to spend on it, advertisers are also drawn towards its precision targeting, measurable ROI, and ability to capture younger, affluent, streaming-first audiences, says Vaishal Dalal, co-founder & director, Excellent Publicity. “CTV offers precise targeting and personalisation, better interactivity and engagement through shoppable ads and QR codes, enhanced measurability and optimisation and innovative ad formats,” he explains, adding that it also ensures incremental reach among cord-cutters and younger consumers.
The momentum is being driven not just by metro-centric audiences but also tier-II and III markets.
Going hybrid
While ad spends on CTV have only been growing, advertising on linear TV recorded a 6% drop with 12% fewer advertisers using the platform in 2024, notes a report by FICCI-EY. But advertisers are not writing off traditional TV yet. Harshdeep Chhabra, head of Global Media, Godrej Consumer, stresses that linear TV is still central to the company’s strategy. The company’s investments on traditional TV have jumped 2.5 times since 2021, making it the third-biggest linear TV advertiser in the country.
“Linear TV remains essential for mass-market campaigns, particularly in FMCG, media, entertainment, telecom and sports. These sectors rely on its broad reach for large-scale awareness. However, urban and affluent audiences are moving towards digital platforms, which is slowly diminishing linear TV’s dominance,” observes Rohit Singh, associate account director, White Rivers Media. He adds that it remains valuable for specific campaigns, and is being complemented but not being replaced by targeted alternatives like CTV.
Industry observers agree that while linear TV’s influence is decreasing thanks to connected TV, it will continue to be a core component in the advertiser’s media mix for the near term at least.
Ishank Joshi, co-founder & CEO of martech platform Mobavenue, points out that India’s CTV advertising growth must be understood in a wider, global context.“The revenue share of CTV advertising in the US is at 45% of the traditional broadcast TV advertising. In India, we’ve barely scratched the surface, with revenues under 5% of traditional spends, even though the share is growing rapidly,” he notes, emphasising that ultimately, most advertisers will have to include CTV in their media strategy especially since the number of CTV households are expected to increase to 100 million in two years.
The future will see “converged TV”, says Dayal, as linear TV will continue to leverage its strength in live programming and campaigns requiring mass simultaneity. “Linear TV will still reach 140 million Indian households by 2030. Ultimately, advertisers will treat TV as a combined ecosystem, leveraging linear for scale, and CTV for precision and performance,” he sums up.