84% households in India have more than 1 person watching CTV and spend 4 hours daily on CTV content : Report by mediasmart

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

mediasmart, an Affle company, launched the second edition of its India CTV Report 2022 titled ‘India Says Yes to Connected TV!’. The report highlights consumer adoption trends across metros and non-metros and a significant shift in CTV’s ad potential for brands and marketers. The Covid-19 pandemic played a catalyst with more homes getting wired broadband connections. As we go into the festive season across the country, that trend continues with more users discovering CTV as the new way to consume content at home with families. In many Indian households, the co-viewing phenomenon on CTV is driven by adults, including users from older demographics.

Globally and in India, marketers are using CTV for high-impact storytelling, amplified brand engagement, and driving action and conversions on mobile. With CTV’s potential to offer measurable advertising on television and to connect the journeys of the users both online and offline, CTV presents remarkable opportunities for brand impact in the ongoing festive season.

According to the report, key CTV viewership trends and insights include:

CTV viewing is a part of the daily routine: CTV is a preferred source of entertainment and viewers spend an average 4 hours daily watching CTV content, as against 3.5 hours in 2021.

Bringing families together: 50% of respondents said they prefer Smart TVs for watching content at home, while only 36% prefer mobile devices. 84% households have more than 1 person watching CTV; 64% respondents claimed to prefer watching CTV together with their families, unlike solo viewing experience. CTV consumption is driven by adults, including grandparents.

Users prefer on-demand content: On-demand content on OTT continues to remain the preferred choice for most viewers (41%) with Music (17%), Games (11%), News (10%) and User-Generated Content (21%) being other options.

Plethora of OTT platforms to view content: People use multiple OTT apps across global, national, regional apps and switch between multiple apps based on the content genre of their preference. 82% of CTV devices generate active bid requests from 4+ OTT platforms.

CTV ads are impactful: 9 in 10 viewers of CTV recall being exposed to ads; 81% of those exposed to ads claim that the ads influenced them.

Improving the Purchase Intent: 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

Nikhil Kumar, vice president, India & SEA, mediasmart 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."

Shailesh Varudkar, chief business officer, VTION 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 robust market for CTV adoption, Amardeep Singh, co-founder & CEO, Interactive Avenues & Gopa Menon, head of digital South Asia, Mindshare emphasized that CTV will truly democratize TV advertising helping to target specific cohorts. At the same time, Vishal Chinchakar, CEO, Madison Digital and Mohit Joshi, CEO, Havas Media Group India mentioned that with more adoption of CTV, the ecosystem provides meaningful exposure and has opened up a vast opportunity for them in terms of innovation, strategy, and creating best practices. Shibu Shivanandan, Founder & MD, PivotRoots also shared his insights highlighting the advantages of CTV advertising of getting to choose your potential audience compared to traditional advertising.