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Connected TV hits 166M monthly viewers in India, up 23%, expanding advertiser reach beyond linear
Our read
Shift a portion of your linear TV budget to CTV now to capture the 59M premium-skewed viewers you literally cannot reach any other way.
Watch
Follow-on Kantar/BARC quarterly CTV viewership updates confirming growth trajectory
The report,
Kantar report finds Connected TV reached 166 million Indian monthly viewers, up 23%, with a third unreachable via linear TV, offering advertisers incremental premium-skewed reach across consumer goods, electronics, and automobiles categories.
Channel facts
From the report. Source details below
- 59 million CTV-only viewers
Other figures
- 60% NCCS A
- 53% male/47% female
- 46% with fixed broadband
- 87,000 consumer sample
What it means for online and offline
The 59M CTV-only cohort makes CTV measurement, targeting, and inventory-aggregation assets attractive acquisition targets to lock in incremental reach across consumer goods, electronics and auto verticals.
Signals to track
- Ad-platform announcements of India CTV programmatic inventory or self-serve buying
- CPM/reach benchmarks published comparing CTV vs linear incremental reach
- OEM smart-TV shipment data and connected penetration in tier-2/3 cities
- Regulatory or measurement-standard moves on cross-screen attribution
Likely next moves
Our read of what comes next — analysis, not reported by the source.
- Build unified CTV+linear reach measurement to prove incremental reach claim to CMOs
- Package premium NCCS A CTV audiences into retail media/D2C bundles for electronics and auto categories
- Negotiate CTV inventory access across dominant OEM and OTT platforms before pricing hardens
- Pilot shoppable CTV formats linking impressions to on-platform or app conversions
The counter-case
The case against this reading — not reported by the source.
The 166M figure is a monthly viewer count, not a monetizable advertising base with proven ROI. CTV inventory in India remains fragmented across walled gardens (YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, JioCinema, Disney+ Hotstar), each with incompatible measurement, making the 'incremental reach' claim aspirational rather than executable. The 23% growth is off a low base, and premium NCCS A skew means the audience is small, saturated, and already reachable via digital/mobile—so the truly 'incremental' 59M CTV-only cohort is what actually matters, and that number is far less impressive than the 166M headline. Ad spend follows measurable outcomes; Kantar's viewer count doesn't establish CPMs, fill rates, or advertiser willingness to pay premiums.
The source
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