#e4mXplains:  India’s CTV ad market races for Rs 4,000-cr by 2029. What are the odds?

India’s Connected TV (CTV) advertising market is entering a defining phase of expansion, driven by rapid smart TV adoption, surging premium video consumption and a decisive push from mainstream consumer-facing brands. 

Over just two years, CTV has moved from being an experimental format to becoming one of the fastest-growing segments within India’s digital video ecosystem. As more households upgrade to smarter devices and shift their viewing from mobile screens to larger living-room televisions, advertisers are responding with sharper, more strategically planned investments.

A new hybrid viewing behaviour is taking shape, rooted in large-screen consumption but empowered by digital flexibility. Industry experts say this shift is powering a broader transformation in advertising, based on the migration of premium audiences, co-viewing patterns and a viewing experience that offers the scale of traditional television with the measurability of digital. Many believe this is only the beginning of a long, structural shift that will define India’s video advertising for the rest of the decade.

CTV screens premium real estate?

India now has 129.2 million CTV users, defined as viewers who streamed digital video on a connected television at least once in the last month. This marks an 85% increase from 69.7 million in 2024. CTV has also overtaken laptops and tablets to become India’s second most-used device for streaming, after smartphones.  

According to the Ormax OTT Audience Report 2025, the average Indian spends more than 3.5 hours per day watching television, and 80% of that time involves simultaneous mobile usage, strengthening the foundation for omnichannel brand strategies. Industry projections suggest that India will reach 60 million CTV households by early 2026, with viewers in the top 15 cities consuming more than 700 million minutes of streamed content every day.

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Revenue surge and advertiser adoption

The revenue outlook mirrors the acceleration in adoption. India’s CTV advertising market is expected to reach Rs 1,335 crore, or about $150 million, in 2025 calendar year.

On a financial-year basis, CTV ad revenues for FY 2024–25 are projected to reach around Rs 1,500 crore, supported by strong adoption in tier-2 and tier-3 regions where affordable broadband, rising incomes and faster device upgrades are reshaping digital video consumption.

After ending 2024 with an estimated $75 million in revenue, or about Rs 637 crore, the market is expected to expand to approximately Rs 1,800 crore, in 2026 and a Rs 4,000 crore CTV ecosystem by 2029.

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Experts attribute this surge to rising smart TV penetration, deeper content libraries, improving bandwidth and growing demand for premium on-demand entertainment. For advertisers, this is significant because CTV delivers high-attention television-style storytelling with digital-grade targeting and measurement.

Anil Solanki, Senior Director at Dentsu X, says the biggest contributor to CTV’s momentum is the migration of high-intent, premium audiences, with automobiles, banking and financial services, e-commerce and premium FMCG leading the adoption.

According to Yasin Hamidani, Director at Media Care Brand Solutions, Connected TV advertising in India is projected to reach between Rs 2,800 crore and Rs 3,000 crore in FY 2025 to 26 up from an estimated Rs 1,800 crore to Rs 2,000 crore in the previous year. He attributes this nearly 50 % growth to premium content consumption in smaller towns, rising smart TV penetration and addressable advertising that combines the reach of traditional television with the precision of digital. He highlights auto, banking and financial services, technology, streaming platforms and premium consumer goods as the most aggressive adopters.

Avdhesh Kumar, Vice President in CTV and YouTube sales, adds that unlimited content on large screens is reshaping viewing in India, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 regions where rising purchasing power, affordable data and improved connectivity are driving device upgrades. He also highlights that Connected TV restores family co-viewing, encourages long-form engagement and strengthens brand recall.

The advertiser mix has also transformed. What began in 2023 as a space dominated by digital-first brands has expanded into a mainstream channel with widespread adoption across consumer goods, finance, automobiles, technology and e-commerce.

According to Prabhvir Sehmay, Founder and CEO of StratPulse Techlabs, in 2023, automobiles led with 20% share, FMCG and quick commerce contributed 10% each, BFSI accounted for 10%, and the remaining 45% came from emerging categories. By 2024, FMCG and auto deepened investments, e-commerce and quick commerce increased spending for incremental reach, and by 2025–2027, FMCG grows from 20% to 45%, auto stays around 20%, BFSI rises to 15%, and e-commerce reaches 20% by 2027, reflecting a clear shift toward brand-building strategies on CTV.

Dhruv Dhawan, Vice President-Revenue, The Trade Desk, shared:

“CTV adoption in India has surged, but that momentum has also created one of the most fragmented premium media environments. Viewers are now spread across OTT apps, FAST channels and OEM platforms, making it harder than ever for brands to achieve unified reach or understand what’s actually working.

Our research shows that nearly 70% of Indian consumers are tired of seeing the same ads repeatedly on a single channel, a clear sign of how challenging frequency management has become. Hence, our focus is on solving that fragmentation in ways that genuinely matter for marketers. We help them see how often viewers are exposed to their ads across India’s top CTV environments and, more importantly, give them the ability to manage that exposure in real time. When brands can finally see and control frequency across platforms, CTV shifts from a patchwork of channels to a measurable, scalable and high-performing medium.

Ultimately, the real opportunity isn’t in adding more CTV screens, it’s in making the ecosystem work together. By unifying premium inventory and strengthening household-level understanding, we’re helping advertisers turn India’s fast-growing CTV landscape into a high-impact channel that benefits both consumers and brands.”

Long-term outlook and global context

CTV’s long-term trajectory indicates a structural evolution aligned with India’s digital transformation. From a negligible USD 1 million or Rs 8 crore in 2020, the market is expected to reach USD 400 million or Rs 4,000 crore by 2029. Early experimentation from 2020–2022 gave way to more strategic spending by 2023, with clear advertiser categories and planning patterns. From 2028 onward, traditional television content moving to CTV is expected to attract mass advertisers in sectors such as personal care, beverages, household products, automobiles and BFSI, which rely on large-format storytelling.

Industry leaders note that as smart TV penetration deepens and hybrid viewing becomes the norm, the share of advertising budgets flowing to CTV will continue to grow. The next phase of growth will depend on improved content discovery, user interface design, and reducing platform fragmentation. Services that make navigation easy and optimise recommendations are likely to capture a greater share of advertiser investments.

On a global scale, PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2025 highlights the rise of CTV. Globally, CTV advertising accounted for 5.9% of broadcast TV ad spend in 2020, rose to 22% in 2024, and is projected to reach USD 51 billion by 2029, equivalent to 45% of broadcast TV advertising. Advertising is expected to be the most powerful growth engine for the global E&M sector, with a 6.1% CAGR over the next five years, nearly three times the 2% growth in consumer spending. AI-driven personalisation will accelerate growth across retail media, social, mobile video and CTV, while digital formats are projected to rise from 72% of total ad revenue in 2024 to 80% by 2029. Retail search advertising is forecast to grow from 32.7% of ad share in 2020 to 45.5% in 2029, and in-game advertising from 32.8% in 2024 to 38.5% by 2029.

In India, CTV has transitioned from a fringe experiment to a core pillar of the country’s video advertising ecosystem. Its growth is driven by audience migration, richer content ecosystems, technology upgrades and the demand for brand-safe, high-attention environments. With mainstream advertisers scaling up investment and revenues expected to multiply throughout the decade, Connected TV is poised to shape the future of India’s video advertising landscape.