Towards a more connected future

Advertisers will spend an estimated $86 million on connected TV (CTV) advertising in India in 2023, according to a report by GroupM’s newly launched addressable TV vertical, Finecast, in partnership with its research firm, Kantar. India’s CTV ad spends are expected to touch $395 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 47%, according to the report. Most of this growth will be fuelled by the uptake of smart devices by consumers. A notable 80% of the linear or traditional TV users will switch to connected TVs over the next one year.

The report also predicts that India will become the third-largest TV market by 2026. Today over 10% of India’s homes, which translates to 20-22 million, are addressable, and that number is expected to reach 40 million by 2025. An addressable TV household is defined as one with smart TVs, streaming media devices or internet-enabled set-up boxes, along with a broadband connection and multiple OTT (over-the-top) services.

“Linear TV is growing at a rate of around 9.7% in India and currently, only 210 million households out of 320 million have TV sets. This means a nearly 70% penetration, and therefore there is room to grow in the 90 million non-TV Indian households,” notes Nicola Lewis, Global CEO, Finecast. While linear TV is also expected to keep growing, the factors driving CTV growth are many. Smart TV shipments in the country are growing 38% year-on-year, as per data from Counterpoint research in Q3 of 2022. Smart TVs also account for 90% of the total TV units sold this year. Lewis therefore underlined the benefits of advertising on CTVs, adding that after Netflix’s decision earlier this year to run ads, several other platforms could follow suit, offering up a host of opportunities for brands.

CTV advertising is also expected to drive greater impact because the probability of ads being watched is higher on CTV than on linear TV and also because its users are highly engaged compared with linear TV users, often preferring uninterrupted consumption. It is important to point out that among the respondents interviewed, people who prefer CTV appear to have higher household incomes and premium lifestyle indicators, such as the ownership of smart devices. 61% of respondents surveyed said they have multiple connections, and within those connections, 62% have smart TVs.

The biggest positive that television currently has in advertising is the creation of a growing number of branding opportunities for businesses of all sizes, said Prasanth Kumar, CEO-South Asia for GroupM. “It is also important to recall that in the future, TV advertising will not only personalise the viewer’s experience but also allow them to get involved with the ads. The future of TV advertising is bright because the emergence of new technologies like CTV creates even more room for customisation,” he remarked. In the future, advancements like automatic content recognition will help make CTV advertising more enticing to advertisers. Financial Express