Premium CTV rates estimated to rise 15–30% this festive season

Connected television advertising is getting more expensive this festive season, although not uniformly. While standard CTV inventory remains within familiar price bands, marquee entertainment properties and coveted home-screen placements are commanding higher premiums as advertisers compete for visibility.

Industry executives estimate seasonal price increases of 15–30% for premium CTV inventory, compared with 5–15% for standard placements. In some cases, home-screen advertising rates have reportedly risen by 20–30%.

But with marketers under pressure to justify expenditure, does a more expensive impression translate into greater attention, incremental reach or measurable business outcomes? Or does it simply buy a more prominent position in an increasingly competitive advertising market?

Also Read: Who’s actually watching your CTV ad? India’s 200 million-plus-viewer measurement puzzle

As CTV gains ground, is long-form advertising finding its way back?

The price of premium

Anil Pandit, Founder, Advantage Insights, estimates that standard CTV inventory is commanding a 5–15% premium over regular-period rates. Premium content, home-screen placements and marquee OTT properties, meanwhile, are seeing increases of approximately 15–30%, depending on demand, targeting and deal size.

Compared with the 2025 festive season, he estimates increases of 5–10% for standard inventory and 10–20% for premium placements.

"These figures should be treated as directional rather than definitive, since CTV pricing is negotiated privately and varies significantly by platform and package," Pandit cautions.

Nikhil Kumar, digital marketing leader, places the broad buying-side benchmark for standard CTV advertising at approximately ₹300–₹500 CPM. Girish Upadhyay, COO, Glassbox, a Komerz company, offers a similar indicative range of ₹250–₹500, depending on platform and targeting.

At the premium end, however, pricing can be dramatically different.

Koffee with Karan offers one example. According to rates cited by Kumar from recent reporting, CTV advertising associated with the programme was quoted at ₹2,000 CPM for run-of-schedule inventory and ₹2,200 for L1 placements.

These are reported marquee-property rates rather than prevailing CTV prices or verified transaction values. Nevertheless, they illustrate the growing price differentiation within the medium.

The festive programming slate, including Bigg Boss across six languages, live cricket and other entertainment properties, has intensified competition for high-visibility placements.

However, not every segment is experiencing comparable increases.

Prabhvir Sahmey, CEO and Co-founder, Stratpulse Labs, says he is unaware of changes to broader OTT rate cards, although he has heard of increases of 20–30% for some home-screen placements.

Home-screen inventory enjoys a particular scarcity advantage. Unlike conventional streaming advertising breaks, the television's discovery interface may accommodate only one or two advertisements.

For some buyers, Sahmey suggests, that exclusivity is itself attractive. He notes that incremental reach has not featured prominently in his recent advertiser conversations, with some investments driven instead by experimentation or attempts to establish a presence in emerging inventory.

This is unfolding against what Sahmey describes as cautious spending within his professional network, including relatively flat performance expenditure and muted paid marketing around new automotive launches. He stresses, however, that his observations are not necessarily representative of the broader market.

Advertisers aren't necessarily retreating

Despite rising premium prices, brand-side responses suggest that advertisers continue to find value in CTV, particularly when integrated with other channels.

Sooraj Balakrishnan, Head of Marketing, Acer India, says the company has increased its CTV investments this festive season, using both premium and regional inventory for campaigns featuring Acer and Acerpure.

"While CTV may not always deliver immediate, directly attributable sales, we are seeing measurable improvements in indicators such as share of search for Acer and Acerpure products," he says.

Acer uses CTV to build consideration, while search, retail media and remarketing support consumers as they compare products and approach purchase. Balakrishnan also points to shoppable advertising formats as opportunities to connect brand exposure more directly with commerce.

A similar approach is evident at DS Group, which is also increasing its festive CTV expenditure.

Rajeev Jain, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing, DS Group, says the medium's value depends on the brand, category and target audience.

"For a niche category like pink rock salt, CTV leads, followed by mobile and linear TV. For Pulse candy, which is mass, CTV adds incremental reach to linear TV and digital, while mobile gives us scale and frequency."

Jain also identifies co-viewing as an advantage, allowing advertisers to reach multiple household decision-makers through a single large-screen exposure.

For DS Group, premium CTV builds consideration, while e-commerce, quick commerce and mobile performance channels help capture demand closer to purchase.

Both advertisers are therefore increasing investment without treating CTV as a standalone sales engine.

Premium content versus premium outcomes

The distinction between paying more for desirable inventory and obtaining better results lies at the centre of the debate.

"There is a difference between paying for premium content and paying for a premium outcome," Kumar says.

A household exposed to the same brand across linear television, mobile video and streaming may generate multiple impressions without contributing equivalent incremental reach.

In such cases, higher CPMs could reflect scarcity rather than access to previously unreached consumers. Kumar argues that advertisers need stronger evidence through deduplicated reach, cross-screen frequency, brand-lift studies and downstream business outcomes.

Pandit similarly cautions that premium placements can improve visibility and launch impact without necessarily delivering proportionately better returns.

For sustained reach and efficiency, he favours a broader CTV mix supported by audience-overlap analysis and frequency controls rather than concentrating excessive budgets in scarce premium inventory.

Upadhyay, however, argues that evaluating CTV primarily through immediate conversions risks undervaluing its contribution to the purchase journey.

In categories such as automobiles and jewellery, he says CTV can strengthen consideration and potentially reduce the cost of driving retail visits and downstream conversions. "The cost per lead may be higher, but if it drives more consumers into stores and improves conversion, the real return lies beyond the click."

The evidence required to establish such outcomes remains important. The advertisers interviewed describe positive engagement and increased CTV investment, but do not provide comparable campaign-level figures demonstrating that higher festive CPMs have produced proportionately greater incremental sales or advertising returns.

That absence is not evidence that premium CTV is failing. Rather, it illustrates the difficulty of evaluating pricing and effectiveness against a consistent measure.

The festive pricing picture is therefore not simply one of rising costs. It is of a medium becoming increasingly differentiated by inventory, content and advertiser objectives.

As CTV matures, the question is no longer whether premium inventory can command higher prices. It is whether advertisers can demonstrate that the additional money bought something they would not otherwise have received.