Exploring the post-pandemic potential of CTV adoption in India

Connected TV (CTV)has emerged as a unique and new touchpoint for marketers. It is growing rapidly, particularly in urban India, fuelled by the pandemic that resulted in most being confined in their homes. Further, with the introduction of Digital India – the Government of India’s flagship program, data penetration level is now at its peak. Substantiating the growing popularity of CTV, especially due to streaming services, a DoubleVerify report titled Four Fundamental Shifts in Advertising and Media found a massive increase in subscriptions, with over 74% of Indian respondents having subscribed to additional streaming services in the past 12 months, contributing to the ascension of CTV.

According to a recent report by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Boston Consulting Group, the Indian media and entertainment industry has overcome economic losses incurred during the height of the COVID pandemic and it is expected to grow to $55-70 bn by 2030 at a 10-12% CAGR, mainly because of strong growth in areas like Over-the-top (OTT) video and gaming that established itself well during the pandemic. According to the same report, the OTT market share is expected to increase to 22%-25% by 2030, with a 7-9% market share in India’s $27 bn M&E industry.
 
The considerable shift in streaming behaviour seen over the past two years is a crucial factor influencing the increased adoption of CTV. According to the latest BCG research, India saw 70-80 million paid OTT subscribers at the end of 2021, up from 14 million in 2018. Additionally, the same Four Fundamental Shifts report by DoubleVerify found that a whopping 78% of consumers in India are spending more time each day consuming content now than they did pre-pandemic. 

As per EY-FICCI 2022 report by EY-FICCI found that India currently has around 25 MM CTV households, and this is expected to grow to 40 MM households by 2025. The new behavioural and consumption patterns will persist long after the pandemic, making CTV an important advertising channel in the future.
 
However, no matter how great an opportunity, a lack of knowledge or concerns about media quality, ad fraud, and ad measurement can prevent marketers from realizing CTV's full potential. 
 
As on other devices, CTV ads can also run alongside objectionable content – raising advertiser concerns about brand safety and suitability. One of the most challenging aspects of tackling brand safety and suitability on CTV is transparency. Since app names are not standardized and might differ from platform to platform, it is difficult to identify where the ad was actually aired and alongside which content, especially if a brand is buying programmatically.

Additionally, not only has CTV become one of the fastest-growing digital media channels, but it has also become the fastest-growing environment for ad fraud. The number of fraud schemes uncovered by DoubleVerify surged by over 70% year over year from 2020 to 2021, and an unprecedented number of these fraud schemes targeted CTV and video, according to DoubleVerify’s most recent Global Insights Report. It was discovered that these schemes attempted to steal more than $6-8 million each month from advertisers. 
 
In addition to the escalating ad fraud landscape in CTV, viewability is also emerging as a major concern for advertisers with reference to CTV advertising. While it is common knowledge that a real person must see an advertisement in order to create awareness, a recent test discovered that one out of every four top CTV environments continued to play programming content and record ad impressions even after the television was turned off. This phenomenon is unofficially known as "TV Off." 

Another factor that advertisers should consider is ensuring that ads are reaching consumers in the intended geography. For example, if brands are looking to reach consumers in India, but their ad is shown to consumers in Japan instead, it cannot be as effective as it would be if it had reached the intended audience. 
 
Given these circumstances, third-party verification has become essential to safeguard brands and advertisers against the challenges in CTV environments – including ensuring that ads are played to real humans, in a brand-suitable environment, when the TV is turned on and in the correct geography. With the support of advanced verification solutions, brands can make ads more effective and help unveil new methods to make a campaign successful, all while keeping transparency at the forefront.

The CTV market is currently growing at a rapid pace and is expected to have a bright future ahead. The shift in content consumption behaviours that we are witnessing will continue, thus prompting more advertisers to turn to CTV to reach the modern consumer. Advertisers, however, will benefit from working with partners that can support them in ensuring they achieve the desired outcomes and deliver the ROI on their media investment fully benefiting from the potential of CTV as a new advertising channel.