The past year has borne witness to a seismic shift underway in India’s television landscape, with addressable technologies emerging as the harbinger of change. Powered by accelerating digitization and affordable broadband access, connected devices have brought unprecedented interactivity and personalization to the living room. Content too is being redefined, as linear programming makes way for on-demand viewing across an array of IP-based screens. At the vanguard of this revolution stand two genres that have succeeded in pulling viewers seamlessly across mediums – Sports and News. Their compelling live and VOD offerings have made Connected TV an irresistible proposition for audiences and an efficient partner for advertisers seeking targeted outreach.
IPL 2023 streaming on JioCinema marked a watershed moment, attracting millions of viewers to its innovative pricing model. Departing from CPT norms to a flat cost per 10 seconds enabled greater flexibility and transparency for brands. This transformative step galvanized digital adoption, with Connected TV ad spends rising 3x. With upcoming tournaments also expected to shift online, the platform is well-poised to consolidate sports’ leadership in driving addressable growth. Similarly, news networks leveraging multi-screen delivery have seen digital viewership overtake television. Aaj Tak’s record-breaking CTV views for the Ram Temple event highlighted this phenomenon. Sustained news consumption on YouTube and proprietary apps is attracting advertisers to these data-rich environments.
Addressable TV’s advancement also stems from measurement becoming more robust. Comscore’s inclusion of Connected TV viewership provides a unified metric to evaluate campaign performance across mediums. With BARC soon integrating digital and television metrics, media plans will transform significantly. As the only pan-India TV measurement body, it will offer unprecedented visibility into content consumption patterns. Such developments have made addressable an indispensable part of future-proof strategies. With nearly half of Indian homes projected to be addressable by 2025, its potential to enhance targeting while maintaining scale remains unparalleled.
As content and commerce increasingly converge, platforms like JioCinema blending premium programming with innovative monetization hold the key to the next phase of growth. Their ability to optimize yield management, offer customized bundles, and tap into data-driven personalization will determine addressable TV’s success. Sports and news have shown the way by understanding evolving habits. Other genres must now focus on interactivity and on-demand delivery to keep audiences engaged across an interactive digital-first landscape. Only by staying aligned with consumption trends can addressable live up to its promise of delivering maximum impact for advertisers.
