Majority of Indians spend 1 to 4 hours on CTV: Mediasmart India’s CTV Report 2021

To highlight the changing media consumptions patterns of the Indian Consumers, Mediasmart, an Affle Company, releases its new report ‘India CTV Report 2021 – Mapping Connected TV (CTV) Viewership in India and the Opportunities for Brands.’

India is undergoing digital transformation and consumers are steadily moving away from traditional linear TV to CTV and OTTs. This change presents an untapped advertising opportunity for brands and advertisers. The report highlights consumer adoption insights layered with an expert view on the possible advertising potential of the CTV medium.

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

Out of the selected audience surveyed, 78% own a Smart TVand 93% of these smart TV users access internet based content
Mobile-first, active and aware CTV consumers: CTV users are young, urban adults who are already mobile-first and are actively engaging with diverse apps such as – 89% of the respondents are social media users, 82% are e-commerce, 44% are gamers and more
Content on demand: over 59% respondents prefer downloading apps via Smart TV App Store, while 26% respondents primarily consume content via pre-installed apps and a small section (15% respondents) use the dongle to stream content on TV
One device, many uses: Close to 70% respondents spend between 1 to 4 hours on CTV watching movies (91%), streaming music (64%), playing games (47%) or watching news (64%)
Spending ability and OTT preferences: Over 65% respondents subscribe to more than one OTT app. There is 40%+ adoption for the leading eight OTT apps in India: Disney+Hotstar, Amazon’s Prime Video, Netflix, Zee5, MXPlayer, Sony LIV, VOOT and Alt Balaji. The inclination on app usage is also heavily dependent on seasonality and timing
Limited barriers to viewership and adoption: Unlike mobile usage of internet, which requires literacy levels, CTV consumption cuts across age, language, and city barriers. By going vernacular, advertisers can engage with users in ads of their language

Nikhil Kumar, Sr. Director, Mediasmart shares, “The world is moving towards immersive watching experiences and CTV is an exciting space to be at. It is interesting to see leading advertisers in the country adopt CTV advertising as a critical new addition to their media mix. CTV advertising is here to stay and with evolutionary solutions provided by MediaSmart on Household Sync technology, we are powering brands to engage with relevant consumers across the connected devices.”

India is a young market with tremendous potential for CTV adoption. CTV inherently is more engaging than traditional TVs and brings together the twin strengths of (a) engaging storytelling associated with CTV advertising and (b) targeting associated with Programmatic & Digital advertising.

While sharing thoughts on the report, Amardeep Singh, CEO of Interactive Avenues comments, “Advertisers globally – and in India – are lapping up the CTV opportunity as it continues to grow as an exciting medium for digital advertising. We have seen great results and ROI for some of our top clients who are already using the CTV ad technology from MediaSmart. This research is a step in the right direction to build standard industry metrics, even as technologies like Household Sync make CTV more measurable and impactful.”

Transforming legacy media

With data plans becoming more affordable, India is one of the biggest markets for internet users. Availability of cheap Smart TVs, diverse and affordable internet content and an untapped demographic group opening to the digital-first world presents a massive opportunity for CTV adoption and growth. This makes for a fertile ground for advertisers to innovate solutions for different brands with diverse business needs.

Disclaimer: Information mentioned here has not been verified or endorsed by Agency Reporter and is in accordance with the press release shared by the company or their appointed representatives.