India’s AdEx growth rate is forecasted at an impressive 10 pc which outpaces the global AdEx growth rate of 5 pc. Crucially, within this growth, Digital’s market share in India stands at 40 pc, indicating not only a rapid expansion but also ample headroom for further growth. In-fact GroupM TYNY 2024 has estimated 57% contribution from digital towards ad revenue in 2024.
Television- which is traditionally cherished by seasoned brand builders, faced its second consecutive year of single-digit growth at 7 pc. Whereas, digital advertising outshone with a remarkable 15 Pc growth, highlighting a paradigm shift in advertiser preferences.
GroupM also projected that Addressable TV to surpass 45 million homes covering 21% of Indian TV Homes. This will have a significant impact on linear TV viewership and catalyse further growth of digital content consumption in the form of expansion of Addressable TV homes.
Factors driving digital:
When we explore on factors that have played a pivotal role in connected TV surge, includes the escalating digital penetration, compelling sports content, the allure of OTT platforms, targeted advertising capabilities, and engaging interactive formats.
As listed above sports content was a major driving force behind the massive growth of CTV with high impact property like IPL streaming being offered free. JioCinema’s pricing strategy both in subscription and in advertising has played a pivotal role in positioning India as a hotbed for digital advertising, paving the way for a transformative year ahead.
In addition to JioCinema and Sports entertainment, another factor that has immensely contributed to the growth of digital and CTV in particular was the News and Current Affairs genre. With almost all leading News Broadcast Networks offering Live TV through their own app or through YouTube, the news content consumption has shifted significantly.
According to Chrome Digital Trac, in January 2024, Aaj Tak Live has clocked a reach of 134.8 million unique viewers across all digital platforms against ABP News Live capturing the attention of 101.9 million unique viewers and Republic Bharat Live has reached 97.2 million unique viewers.
According to Comscore Indian Today Group has topped News/Information category with a video viewership of 52.5 mn and the highest total time spent of 535 million minutes within the Connected TV viewership segment as on March 2023.
In a clear case of digital overtaking traditional TV, the Live TV feed of Ram Temple Inauguration on Aaj Tak’s CTV has registered significantly higher views with peaking concurrency and time spend when compared with TV viewership of leading News Broadcasting Networks. For instance, the chart reveals that Aaj Tak’s CTV was leading with 1289 (AMA 000’s) vs Aaj Tak TV clocking 1016 (AMA 000’s) on 22nd January 2024 (day of Ram Temple Consecration), which portrays growing trend of digital leadership against Television feeds.
With reports predicting that Sports content consumers will focus more on immersive experience journeys, the upcoming IPL season will witness more viewers shifting towards digital. Likewise, the Election 2024 will surely guide News genre in similar fashion to attract more eyeballs.
For Brands and Advertisers:
In terms of advertising, JioCinema’s pricing policy has undoubtedly contributed to accelerating this shift, making digital platforms more appealing and efficient for advertisers. JioCinema’s decision to offer IPL streaming on a flat cost per 10 seconds basis, departing from the traditional CPT model, is set to accelerate digital adoption by advertisers. This innovative pricing model promises greater flexibility, transparency, and efficiency in reaching target audiences, solidifying digital’s position as a preferred advertising platform.
The streaming platform’s decision to sell IPL streaming on a flat spot rate basis for Connected TVs was a ground breaking move and marked a paradigm shift in the traditional advertising landscape. Apart from disrupting the pricing norms, the move has also fuelled a substantial increase in advertising expenditure on Connected TVs, witnessing a remarkable rise from Rs 450 crores to around Rs 1000 crore in 2023- Madison report substantiates.
JioCinema’s pricing innovation is directly proportional to the changing consumer landscape, where all TV sets sold in the past 16 months are now Connected TVs, and current TV sets being sold are Smart TVs. This transition has not only reflected a change in consumer preferences but has also opened up new avenues for advertisers to tap into the dynamic and interconnected world of Smart TVs.
In addition, the growing digital viewership in News and Current affairs space associated with the availability of cross media measurement from agencies like Comscore and Chrome Digital Track has resulted in advertisers exploring the medium favourably.
Recently, Mr Shahsi Sinha – the Chairman of BARC India has announced that the measurement agency will start releasing the digital viewership data along with the existing linear TV data from 2024. With this, the industry will have a currency of both traditional and digital in their dashboards, which will surely transform the way media planning is happening.
