India is present process a pivotal transformation because of the vital progress of OTT (over-the-top) or on-demand content material obtainable immediately. In response to the 2025 FICCI EY report, by 2030, the variety of massive screens in India will cross 200 million, and small (telephone) screens will attain nearly 700 million, creating a big base of shoppers hungry for content material and data.
Nevertheless, the report additionally states that digital promoting grew 17% to achieve Rs 700 billion, which is 55% of whole promoting revenues. Search and social media accounted for 11% of this progress, whereas e-commerce promoting contributed 50%. Because of this regardless of the expansion in OTT content material, these platforms are grappling with the complexity of monetising this quickly evolving surroundings.
Throughout a current panel dialogue at AVIA’s Way forward for Video India convention, which was a part of WAVES 2025, Ashwin Padmanabhan, chief working officer, South Asia, at GroupM; Ranjana Mangla, senior vp and head of advert income at Sony LIV; and Akila Jayaraman, head of GTM technique and advertising and marketing at Jio Advertisements, unpacked these challenges, and future pathways for commercialising streaming in India.
Padmanabhan began off by emphasising the rising notion that streaming is an extension of tv. He stated in Western markets, this transition is already underway. In India, it is catching up shortly.
“Manufacturers at the moment are partaking in a complete TV dialog—combining conventional linear TV delivered by way of cable and satellite tv for pc with video-on-demand (VOD) and related TV (CTV).”
“Whereas linear TV scores are declining, CTV viewership is accelerating,” he famous. “TV, no matter its supply technique, stays impactful.” Cell, with its deep penetration, stays vital, but it surely’s the evolving relationship between linear TV and CTV that’s attracting eager curiosity from advertisers, he added.
The measurement and distribution problem
A serious hurdle stays viewers measurement. Mangla introduced up an important challenge, saying that the inconsistent remedy of cellular and CTV streaming poses a problem.
“With audiences now spending 8–10 hours each day throughout a number of screens, conventional TV metrics now not seize this fragmented engagement. Streaming typically sees excessive view-through charges, however monetisation fashions and measurement methods haven’t but caught up,” she famous.
Because the market grows, the query of who will standardise measurement stays urgent she identified. She additionally referred to as for transparency in OTT measurement, much like that of tv. “A unified measurement system is important for fostering belief and worth in digital promoting,” she stated.
In response to Padmanabhan, ‘consideration planning’, a brand new metric framework targeted on how audiences interact with content material, is the best way to go. “We’re serving to manufacturers perceive the way to hyperlink the proper metrics to content material high quality, viewers engagement, and enterprise outcomes,” he defined.
He cited that related TV now accounts for roughly 30% of whole viewership in India, with impressions doubling each six months on the pin-code stage. Nonetheless, this attain largely covers the highest 1–2% of Indian households.
“To successfully monetise this premium viewers, innovation in advert promoting methods and backend infrastructure is important.”
He identified that many broadcasters are nonetheless working with a content-first mindset, which labored in conventional media however is inadequate within the digital age. “Broadcasters have to suppose like tech firms,” he urged. “You do not have to construct all the pieces in-house, however you do want a tech-driven mindset to reach streaming.”
Padmanabhan stated, “With out expertise, you possibly can’t monetise streaming. Broadcasters know the way to break content material; nonetheless, the problem now’s doing it profitably.”
Rethinking advert codecs
Nevertheless, Jayaraman stated that whereas improvements equivalent to shoppable advertisements are producing buzz, conventional video stays dominant. She stated despite the fact that these codecs exist, the viewers hasn’t advanced but.
“There’s excessive potential in pre-roll and in-content codecs, significantly on premium video.”
She stated that social media is noisy and constructing a model immediately is troublesome. OTT platforms supply deeper engagement. The problem lies in good advert concentrating on utilizing demographics and household-level information to make sure worth supply.
Nevertheless, Mangla cautioned that aggressive monetisation might disrupt viewer expertise. “Streaming’s energy is its on-demand nature. If the content material is partaking, customers come again, however we should stability advert innovation with viewer retention.”
In response to the panellists, premium video progress will probably be pushed by a hybrid ROI mannequin that blends content material, connectivity, and commerce.
