CTV & Connected TV Advertising in India: A 2026 Primer

What is CTV advertising?

CTV stands for connected TV — any television connected to the internet, whether that's a smart TV, a Fire TV Stick, a Chromecast, or a gaming console running a streaming app. CTV advertising is the video ad inventory that runs inside the apps on that screen: pre-roll and mid-roll spots on ad-supported streaming platforms, shown to whoever is sitting in front of the television.

It sits under a wider umbrella called OTT (over-the-top) advertising, which covers video delivered over the internet on any device — phone, laptop, or TV. CTV is the subset of OTT advertising specifically watched on a television screen. In everyday agency conversation the two terms get used almost interchangeably, but the distinction matters when you're planning: OTT ad advertising can include a viewer's phone; CTV advertising, by definition, doesn't.

How is CTV different from YouTube and social video ads?

This is the question that trips up most marketers new to the channel, so it's worth being precise about it up front: CTV is not "YouTube ads on a bigger screen." The two differ on buying mechanism, context, targeting, and measurement — separate axes, not one continuum.

Our video marketing strategy guide covers YouTube and social video — content bought through a Google or Meta ads account, watched mostly on a phone, and optimised for views, watch time, and click-through. CTV inventory is a different buying relationship entirely: it runs through streaming platforms' own ad stacks or through programmatic exchanges built for TV-format inventory, and it's watched on a shared living-room screen where there's no "click" at all — no cursor, no thumb, often no remote in hand during the ad.

The practical takeaway: don't reuse a skippable YouTube bumper as your CTV creative and expect it to work the same way, and don't judge a CTV campaign against your YouTube click-through benchmarks — they're not measuring the same behaviour.

Which platforms carry CTV and OTT ad inventory in India?

India's biggest streaming platforms now run ad-supported tiers, which is what makes CTV a real (if still-developing) channel here rather than a theoretical one.

• JioHotstar — India's largest streaming platform by reach, with sports, entertainment, and movie content carrying ad breaks on its ad-supported plans.
• Amazon Prime Video's ad-supported tier — Prime Video now shows ads by default on standard plans in India, with an ad-free option available at extra cost.
• SonyLIV — runs ad inventory on its free and lower ad-supported tiers alongside its subscription content.

Other platforms carry ad inventory too, and the roster shifts as pricing and ad tiers change — treat any list like this as a starting point, and confirm current ad-tier availability and inventory directly with the platform or your media-buying partner before committing budget.

How is CTV inventory actually bought?

Two routes, and most India campaigns use a mix of both. The first is a direct deal with the streaming platform's own ad sales team — you negotiate placement, audience, and rate directly, usually with a meaningful minimum spend. The second is programmatic buying through a demand-side platform that has access to CTV inventory across multiple publishers and exchanges, letting you bid for impressions in something closer to real time.

If your team is also exploring programmatic buying more broadly — how the auction works, where it fits alongside direct deals — our guide to programmatic advertising in India covers the buying mechanism itself; CTV inventory is simply one of the places that mechanism gets used.

Which route makes sense depends on scale. A brand testing CTV for the first time with a modest budget is often better served starting with a platform's self-serve or managed ad product (where one exists) than negotiating a bespoke programmatic setup from scratch.

What does CTV advertising cost in India?

Honestly: it varies enough by platform, format, and audience targeting that we won't put a single rupee figure here and pretend it's reliable. CTV inventory in India generally carries a premium over standard digital video, reflecting the big-screen, largely unskippable format and the household reach it delivers — but exact CPMs, minimum spends, and available ad formats differ by platform and change over time as ad tiers roll out and mature.

The honest approach: ask your agency, or the platform's ad sales team directly, for current minimums and rate cards before you plan a budget around a number you read somewhere. Our performance marketing services cover getting those current numbers as part of scoping a paid media plan, rather than working off stale published figures.

Is CTV advertising right for your brand right now?

It depends on what you're trying to do. CTV tends to earn its place for brand-building and reach goals — building awareness across a household with a format that's hard to skip and impossible to mute selectively — more than for direct-response, last-click performance goals.

It's a reasonable test for a brand that already has a working performance funnel elsewhere (search, social, or both) and wants to add reach at the top, or for a category where a bigger, less rushed screen genuinely suits the message — a longer brand film, a product story, a seasonal campaign. It's a weaker starting point if you have no existing measurement discipline yet, or if your budget is too thin to clear a platform's practical minimums; that money usually does more for you in a channel you can already measure and optimise.

How do you measure a CTV campaign?

Not by clicks — there mostly aren't any. CTV measurement centres on reach and frequency at the household or device level, completion rate (did the ad play through, since most CTV inventory can't be skipped), and, where the platform or your DSP supports it, incrementality — comparing exposed versus unexposed audiences on downstream actions like site visits or app installs, since a direct last-click attribution model doesn't map cleanly to a television screen.

Set expectations with whoever approves the budget before the campaign starts: CTV reporting will look and read differently from a Google Ads or Meta Ads dashboard, and that's a feature of the channel, not a gap in the reporting.