'40% of Samsung TV viewers are exclusively streamers'

In the last two years, there has been a major shift in TV viewing habits. People are consuming more content online than ever before, which is fueling the expansion of Connected TV (CTV).  

exchange4media organised a roundtable discussion titled 'How to Leverage the Power of Screen' in collaboration with Samsung Ads. Vikram Chande, General Manager and Sales Lead, Samsung Ads India, moderated the event, which examined the dynamic TV landscape, discussed the emergence of ad-supported services, and provided examples of how companies are using the power of the screen to generate deeper interaction with consumers. 

The roundtable was attended by industry leaders including Apoorva Maheshwari, Head of Marketing,Bestseller India, Deepak Saluja,Chief Marketing Officer,ICICI Securities, Girish Hingorani,Senior GM and Head- Marketing, Ecommerce,Blue Star, Krishnarao Buddha,Senior Category Head,Parle Products Pvt Ltd, Pooja Sahgal,CMO, Raymond Consumer Care, Ritu Mittal,Head of Marketing & Digital,Bayer, Anooj Shetty, Client engagement Director,Finecast, Saibal Biswas,Senior VP and Head of Marketing, Partnerships & PR, MediBuddy

and Vikramjeet Bhayana, Head of Marketing,Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. 

The session was opened with Chande who explained the role of Samsung advertising division and what Samsung ads brings to the table. He also shared that they are the first Original Electronic Manufacturers (OEMs) in the market to offer complete seamless CTV advertising solutions.  

Chande also discussed how the full experience on the screen has become the sole truth of viewership numbers today. He stated that the screen today is nothing more than the culmination of multiple modes of content distribution, and how an OEM may present an entirely fresh viewpoint on how CTV on a cable television advertising has been done up to this point, and what distinctions it can offer to the table. 

In his conversation, he covered a few points- how streaming today is just changing the entire landscape. What is a Smart TV? What is an incremental reach? How can advertisers make it much more targeted? What are the experiences that it can deliver? And what are the formats and outcomes and measurements that we can ultimately bring to the table? 

Sharing thoughts on CTV,  Biswas shared his views and said that India continues to be a mobile first market and a lot of people are streaming the relevant content from mobiles and consuming content. But the consumer insights still remains that Indians love watching TV, which is the largest screen they have. "When there is opportunity to watch their relevant content and enjoy it with their families, they would invariably be watching it in the biggest screen in their home which is the TV so I think connected TV will evolve going forward as both the hardware part of connected TV penetration increases, as well as the supporting ecosystem and like the broadband penetration or 4G, 5G increases, as well as the content becomes available."

Shetty of Finecast shared that they at Finecast see connected TV  growing at a great pace. According to Shetty, Connected TV has a penetration of 25 million plus and it's going to boom at a greater pace. "We expect CTV to grow to reach a number of 40 million very soon and then that's the time when connected TV will really surge and it will be a part of all the media plans."

He further added, " TV is a part of all of the media plans but connected TV would definitely enhance the  CTV plan as well.  The TV plus CTV combination is what that would yield in terms of a greater benefit, which would aid to a greater efficiency building a greater reach and that's been the narrative which we've been driving in GroupM and has been quite successful."

According to Chande, from an experience perspective, streaming has completely changed the entire ecosystem. He said that Before and the pandemic, and in fact during the pandemic times, a lot of people just got stuck into the homes and it pertinently changed their habit for almost a year. 

He further shared that streaming today is surging like anything. “From a Samsung ecosystem perspective, 40% of our viewers are exclusively streamers. They don't consume linear TV content in the entire month and hence linear TV content doesn't sell in the entire month. A new normal streaming today is becoming like a habit.” 

He shared some study data that was done internally by Samsung which stated that between December 2022 to Feb’ 2023, 12% people are only cable TV consumers, that means 89% are default steamers. Their first port of content consumption is a streaming device. They might either switch to something on cable but they are exclusive steamers. “With this data we can today tell you deterministically that this is the realistic truth of what today people are consuming on the televisions,” said Chande. 

Sharing similar thoughts on CTV, Hingorani of BlueStar said that he believes connected TV is the future. 

"Very clearly it will replace television someday. The question is how long it will take. Every year about 10 to 12 million television sets are sold and out of that I think 80% of smart TVs, and therefore it's just a matter of time before connected TV becomes the future of television. It's like the best of both worlds. Advertisers can target television audiences far more sharply than what conventional TV could do. So for both advertisers as well as consumers, connected TV will become much larger than what it is now. We will see that connected TV will assume a greater significance in marketing budgets going forward."

Speaking about the total CTV market, Chande shared that in India today numbers that are being quoted are at an extreme level of 55 million. “We estimate that number stands in the range of 20 to 25 million, not more than that.”  He also informed that there's a 2% drop in the overall streaming devices sales as once you buy a smart TV, you do not put a dongle or something to make the TV smarter. He also stated that Samsung's pitch in the market is to reach out to people who are difficult to contact since they have nowhere to go in the cable TV industry.

Meanwhile, Maheshwari said that at Bestseller they are very excited about the connected TV opportunity that's emerging for advertising and brand building. "Our fashion brands Jack & Jones, Vera Moda, and ONLY are very well poised to reach out to the right customers and the right potential TG for our brands as the connected TV space grows. It's something that we're watching closely."

Bhayana of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance shared that as an insurer, they are in the industry of the future and he would really like to see connected televisions doing for them. 

Buddha said that CTV in the country seems to be a very encouraging development. I he said, in the past few years with the advent of 4G, they have  seen that there is a movement towards connected TV. In fact, events like COVID have propelled CTV a lot more and this is turning out to be an alternative channel actually to reach out to consumers.

"From Parle's perspective, CTV is going to emerge as a very good platform to reach out to our prospective consumers. While television penetration is really deep and very well entrenched. CTV I think it's a matter of time that the penetration will also sort of become quite substantial. And I think it will be a great platform for brands to reach our prospective consumers."

Saluja further added that connected TV definitely holds a lot of potential for marketers because with its ability to offer deterministic data, it kind of complements both technology, consumer insights and ability to serve creative, which are more targeted. "So I look forward to seeing a revolutionary change that would come up when it comes to targeting users using the connected TV ecosystem."

Mittal of Bayer shared that CTV offers a huge opportunity to do sharper targeting to reach out to premium audiences in India today. " As times goes the penetration of CTV in India will continue to grow which will allow marketers to target their consumers not just in a sharp and focused way for premium consumers but also for the wider audiences."