Why Live Sports presents a primetime opportunity for CTV publishers in India

India is a sporting nation with over a billion people. Millions of fans tune in to sporting events, with an increasing number choosing to stream programming – driven by the high penetration of mobile phones and increasing adoption of Connected TV (CTV). In 2023, more than 30 million Indian households owned a Connected TV, which is estimated to almost double by 2025.

Ad dollars are following suit, with India’s video streaming market poised to surpass $2 billion this year. This presents a golden opportunity for publishers to capture untapped advertising revenue, given that ad-supported content and FAST services are experiencing rapid growth.

This is especially true in the sports arena, which captures a massive audience: a whopping 85% of Indians who live in urban areas follow sports regularly across various media platforms. As more Indians turn to streaming to watch their favorite matches live, publishers have the opportunity to reach addressable audiences at scale.

As publishers seek to more fully seize the live sports opportunity in India, here’s a look at some of the main hurdles they face – and how to clear them.

Getting Off the Sidelines: Live Sports in India

Real-Time Ad Delivery: In a live TV environment, the stakes are high. There’s pressure to smoothly execute campaigns for diverse audiences across various distribution points, in real time. This pressure to deliver weighs heavily on publishers: a 30-second lag could mean the difference between a game lost or won, and a fan finding out the final score before it airs on the platform.

Programmatic Buying: In the past, Indian publishers have shown reticence to sell CTV inventory programmatically, as they lacked the programmatic tools necessary to optimise CTV environments. Some media owners would rather “play it safe” and sell sports content through direct channels. Yet, programmatic TV has since evolved to streamline ad buying across CTV and OTT environments at scale — presenting a missed opportunity to publishers who stay on the sidelines. The reliance on direct sales pathways effectively caps the revenue that publishers can make and limits opportunities for advertisers.

Prepare for the Unpredictable: Selling advertising against live TV versus VOD requires a certain level of campaign flexibility. The number and length of ad breaks in live sports often vary. In the case of live sporting events, the length of a commercial break can depend on how long it takes to attend to an injury or if a game goes into overtime. Ideally, publishers want to boost campaign outcomes for brands by airing ads during peak viewing moments, i.e., the last play of a game.

Furthermore, for some events, viewership levels might far outpace expectations which can create scaling issues that impact response times and lead to significant timeout rates that ripple across the ecosystem, impacting DSPs and demand partners. Missed opportunities in live TV are especially wasteful because they represent a crucial moment to engage with an audience that can’t be replicated and inhibit publishers from earning the full value of their live content.

How Can CTV Publishers Be Primetime Ready for Live Sports in India?

1. Leverage Ad Delivery Tools: To keep pace with CTV growth, technology is changing fast. In a digitally-enabled live CTV environment, publishers have more flexibility and control at their disposal with advanced delivery tools becoming more readily available. Rising demand from both direct and programmatic sources has given way to an emphasis on addressing concerns related to duplication, such as back-to-back ads and category clashes, which can now be effectively resolved. For example, publishers can use ad deduplication tools at both the brand and category level to make sure the same ad doesn’t run twice during a game, or to optimize fill rates. Media owners can leverage tools like Magnite’s Live Stream Acceleration (LSA), a technology designed to help CTV publishers optimize their live inventory programmatically. LSA can better manage large bursts of ad requests for live inventory, improve time out and ad response time, and optimise the amount of ad break time publishers have to monetise.

2. Lean In on Programmatic: Programmatic’s data-driven targeting capabilities empower advertisers of all sizes to tap into premium inventory, irrespective of their budgets. Programmatic demand should ideally be leveraged in concert with direct demand in business-compliant ways to ensure the maximisation of ad breaks with large, diverse pools of advertisers.

Machine learning technology is also well-suited to create the perfect ad break, and can manage ad breaks of different lengths in response to time changes throughout a sporting match. Machines take into consideration demand diversity while delivering quality user experiences that can yield better results.

3. Embrace Real-Time Data: CTV’s prize trophy is its addressability. Real-time, glass-level, household viewing data allows for optimisation and troubleshooting during sports events, and can even be used to inform creative to drive impact. Given personalisation is a key factor in driving engagement, as 76% of streamers pay more attention to ads that are personalised to their lifestyle and interests, this flexibility is especially valuable to reach more users and drive campaign performance.

Converting on India’s Sports Opportunity

Ultimately, the rise of CTV in India is a win-win for sports fans and media platforms alike. Live CTV presents a can’t-miss opportunity for publishers to engage with a massive, loyal, fan base, but has historically been harder for publishers to activate. By zeroing in on CTV-specific ad delivery tools, programmatic ad buying, and real-time data, publishers can level the playing field and go for gold in the live sports arena.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com.