Cricket, QR codes fuel CTV’s ad boom in India

By early 2026, Connected TV (CTV) in India has firmly transitioned from a niche offering to a mainstream entertainment platform, reaching an impressive 166 million monthly viewers aged 15 and above—a 23% increase year-over-year, according to Kantar’s Media Compass Report. This surge underscores CTV’s growing dominance as a preferred medium for content consumption, signaling a structural shift in the Indian television landscape rather than a passing trend.

A striking 36% of CTV viewers—approximately 59 million people—consume content exclusively on CTV, making them unreachable via traditional linear TV. Puneet Avasthi, Director of Specialist Businesses at Kantar South Asia, emphasizes that this exclusive audience provides brands with a valuable 4% incremental reach beyond linear TV, particularly skewed towards metro males, thereby reshaping how advertisers strategize their campaigns.

CTV’s audience profile is both premium and diverse, with 60% belonging to the top socio-economic bracket (NCCS A) and nearly half aged between 25 and 44—the peak earning and spending demographic. Moreover, the platform’s reach is expanding beyond urban centers, with one in three users now residing in rural India, enabling brands to engage affluent and aspirational consumers alike through a single, increasingly influential channel.

Despite rapid adoption, infrastructure challenges persist, as only 46% of CTV viewers currently have fixed broadband at home, meaning much of the platform’s growth rides on mobile data connectivity. This limitation suggests that while CTV’s momentum is robust, further broadband rollout will be critical to deepening user engagement and sustaining its ascent as a mainstream entertainment medium.

Connected TV in India has carved out a distinct demographic niche that complements and extends the reach of traditional linear TV, offering advertisers a valuable 4% incremental audience largely composed of metro males, as Puneet Avasthi highlights. This audience is socio-economically diverse, with 60% belonging to the affluent NCCS A bracket, making CTV especially attractive for premium and high-consideration categories, while its growing rural footprint—now encompassing one in three users—signals expanding geographic reach beyond urban centers. The gender balance is nearly even, with men constituting 53% and women 47%, and the 25 to 44 age group representing 46% of viewers, aligning well with brands targeting consumers in their peak earning and spending years.

Despite CTV’s robust audience engagement, infrastructure challenges remain a significant hurdle, as only 46% of viewers have fixed broadband connections, with the remainder relying on less stable mobile data networks. This limitation affects consistent ad delivery and viewer experience but also points to broadband expansion as a critical lever for deepening CTV’s reach and effectiveness. Meanwhile, advertisers face a misalignment between viewer attention and ad spend, with converged TV platforms commanding 38% of viewing time but only 18% of advertising budgets, underscoring a missed opportunity to capitalize on the big screen's sustained engagement.

The fragmented nature of India’s CTV ecosystem complicates advertising strategies, as inventory is scattered across subscription-plus-ads streamers, free ad-supported platforms, smart TV OS marketplaces, and YouTube’s CTV surface, each with differing measurement standards and definitions of viewability. This lack of a unified currency akin to BARC ratings for linear TV creates challenges in campaign planning, audience overlap calculation, and fraud detection, deterring mid-sized and challenger brands from fully embracing CTV despite its potential. Consequently, CTV ad spend remains concentrated in categories where its advantages are clearest—such as auto launches, entertainment promotions, and data-savvy D2C brands leveraging addressability and sequential messaging.

Communal viewing of cricket on Connected TV in India has emerged as a powerful catalyst for enhanced brand engagement and recall, with 86% of CTV streamers often watching with others and 85% more likely to gather around cricket than on-demand content. This shared experience multiplies individual purchase intents within households, as a single cricket match viewed by multiple family members can generate distinct interactions and transactions, especially when interactive ad formats like QR codes are employed during strategic IPL breaks to capture the attention of whichever viewer is holding a phone.

Interactive CTV ad formats such as pause ads and QR codes uniquely capitalize on the communal viewing context by securing moments of guaranteed attention and transforming the ubiquitous second screen from a distraction into a transactional tool. In an attention economy where mobile video ad view lengths are shrinking, pause ads command premium value by ensuring presence, while QR codes leverage Indians’ ingrained habit of scanning codes for payments, seamlessly extending this behavior to the television screen and thereby enhancing ad effectiveness during live cricket streams.

The cultural resonance of cricket combined with localized, language-specific advertising further amplifies the impact of interactive CTV ads, with 78% of viewers affirming that ads in their content’s language are more effective and 79% more likely to remember brands advertising during live streams. Vertical video ads have also proven potent, driving 31% of respondents to purchase products after viewing, illustrating how culturally relevant, interactive formats in communal cricket viewing environments foster deeper brand conversations and stronger cross-screen engagement.