MUMBAI : An Affle company mediasmart has released the second edition of its India CTV Report 2022 titled ‘India Says Yes to Connected TV!’. The report stated that India’s smart TV market grew 74 per cent YoY in Q2 2022.

The report focuses on consumer adoption trends in metros and non-metro areas, as well as a significant shift in CTV ad potential for brands and marketers.

According to its report, CTV viewing is a part of the daily routine and a preferred source of entertainment. CTV consumption is driven by adults, including grandparents. 78 per cent had a smart TV out of which 93 per cent used the internet to consume content

TV subscriptions stood at merely five million subscribers in 2020, but quickly doubled to ten million in 2021. By 2025, this figure is expected to become 4x.

mediasmart vice president (India & SEA) Nikhil Kumar said, “Our report this year goes deeper into the reach and impact of CTV. It is interesting to see how far CTV has grown into the metros and non-metros. It’s a stark revelation to see CTV’s growth into a family viewing phenomenon that is bringing people back to their living rooms. The audience for CTV is fairly well spread across the diversity of content offered by multiple OTTs and now beginning to explore newer genres like Games, Live News, as other top choices. This consumption shift has also led to significant growth in co-viewing which is not restricted to a certain demographic or geographic segment either. This holds huge potential for advertisers who can leverage emerging technologies like mediasmart’s CTV Household Sync to connect the worlds of TV & mobile and drive impact.”

The report highlighted that viewers spend an average of four hours daily watching CTV content, as against three and half hours in 2021. 69 per cent spend 1-4 hours/day watching CTV.

72 per cent of respondents above 35 years of age consume CTV content after 6 p.m, indicating that CTV is a preferred source of entertainment for people to wind down after work.

50 per cent of respondents said they prefer Smart TVs for watching content at home, while only 36 per cent prefer mobile devices.

84 per cent households have more than one person watching CTV and 64 per cent respondents claimed to prefer watching CTV together with their families, unlike solo viewing experience.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of wired broadband connections in homes. As the country enters the holiday season, more users are discovering CTV as a new way to consume content at home with their families. Adults, including users from older demographics, drive the co-viewing phenomenon on CTV in many Indian households.

On-demand content on OTT continues to remain the preferred choice for most viewers (41 per cent) with Music (17 per cent), Games (11 per cent), News (10 per cent) and User-Generated Content (21 per cent) being other options. 66 per cent have a subscription to more than one OTT app

The reports stated that people use multiple OTT apps across global, national, and regional apps and switch between multiple apps based on the content genre of their preference. 82 per cent of CTV devices generate active bid requests from more than four OTT platforms.

Marketers are using CTV for high-impact storytelling, increased brand engagement, and driving action and conversions on mobile globally and in India. With CTV's ability to provide measurable advertising on television and to connect users' journeys both online and offline, CTV presents remarkable opportunities for brand impact during the current holiday season.

Nine in ten viewers of CTV recall being exposed to ads; 81 per cent of those exposed to ads claim that the ads influenced them. Nudging the users on their connected mobile devices within 24 hours helps improve the purchase intent for users who have seen ads on Connected TV.

VTION chief business officer Shailesh Varudkar said, “Our partnership with mediasmart in 2021 was the first-of-its kind research on CTV viewers in India and their habits, sliced-and-diced by various demographics and came at a time when there was little industry knowledge about this category. This year, as we go deeper and wider into the country, the newer learnings from our CTV2.0 report will further give an impetus to the growing appetite and enthusiasm for CTV among consumers and advertisers.”

Elaborating on India’s potential as a robust market for CTV adoption Interactive Avenues, Co-Founder & CEO Amardeep Singh, said, “CTV has the potential to truly democratize TV advertising by allowing even low-budget advertisers to connect with audiences on TV. This edition of mediasmart’s report will help advertisers understand the nuances of the medium better along with the changing consumer behavior and also instill confidence regarding CTV’s role as an impactful advertising medium through measurable technologies like mediasmart’s CTV Household Sync.”

Mindshare Head of digital (South Asia) Gopa Menon, added, “India is a young market with a tremendous potential for CTV adoption and CTV offers great opportunities to advertisers where they can get strong consumer insights on viewing habits and also target specific cohorts to drive the brand message effectively and efficiently.”

Madison Digital CEO Vishal Chinchakar added, “We have come a long way from last year, when the ecosystem in India was embarking to explore the CTV Opportunity, to now when top clients are insisting on the inclusion/ better understanding of CTV in their media plans.”

Commenting on CTV’s impact for brand lift, Havas Media Group India , CEO Mohit Joshi said, “CTV ecosystem creates meaningful exposures to reach the target audience. The platforms and the formats have opened up a vast opportunity for us in terms of innovation, strategy, and creating best practices for CTV advertisers.”

PivotRoots Founder & MD Shibu Shivanandan, said, “The good thing about CTV advertising is unlike traditional TV, advertisers get to choose their potential audience. Hence, a complete shift from spot buys to audience buying on a large screen is now possible with digital targeting capabilities and can be bought and served programmatically.”

Keywords: mediasmart, CTV, Nikhil Kumar, OTT, Shailesh Varudkar, CTV adoption Interactive Avenues, Mindshare, OTT, content, Shibu Shivanandan, PivotRoots, Havas Media, cable Tv, Wired connections