With monthly viewership touching 166 million people aged 15 and above in Q1 2026 - a 23% year-on-year increase, Connected TV (CTV) has officially crossed the threshold from an emerging digital touchpoint to a mainstream media platform in India, according to the latest edition of Kantar's Media Compass Report. 

The report's most significant finding is that 59 million viewers, equivalent to 36% of the total CTV audience, consume content exclusively through Connected TV and remain outside the reach of Linear TV. This means over one-third of CTV viewers would be missed entirely by conventional television campaigns, reinforcing CTV's growing role in delivering incremental reach.

According to Kantar, 60% of viewers belong to NCCS A households, underscoring the platform's appeal among affluent consumers and making it particularly relevant for premium and high-involvement categories such as automobiles, technology, consumer durables and luxury products.

At the same time, CTV's expansion is no longer confined to India's largest cities. One in every three Connected TV users now lives in rural India, signalling that improved device penetration and internet access are broadening the platform's footprint beyond metropolitan markets. 

Demographically, the platform maintains a relatively balanced gender split, with 53% male and 47% female viewers, while nearly half of its audience (46%) falls within the 25-44 age group - typically consumers in their peak earning and spending years. 

However, the report suggests that CTV's growth story is still in its early chapters. Despite rapid adoption, only 46% of CTV viewers currently have access to fixed broadband connections at home. 

As Connected TV adoption gathers momentum, media planning is becoming less about choosing between linear and digital, and more about integrating both to maximise reach, precision and effectiveness. 

For advertisers, the findings present both a challenge and an opportunity: reaching audiences now requires a cross-platform strategy rather than a TV-first approach. The quarterly study, based on a rolling sample of more than 87,000 consumers, paints a picture of an increasingly fragmented television ecosystem where viewers are spreading across traditional broadcast and internet-enabled TV platforms. 

Puneet Avasthi, director, specialist businesses, South Asia, Kantar, said, “The rapid evolution of Connected TV is reshaping how brands approach audience targeting. Our latest Media Compass insights show that the CTV opportunity is not just about scale, it gives a sizeable 4% incremental reach of audiences not available on LTV with a strong Metro Male skew. By providing a continuous, cross-media view of consumer behaviour across TV, digital and print, Media Compass helps brands move beyond siloed planning to maximise reach, reduce duplication and drive greater effectiveness from their media investments.”

The findings reinforce a broader shift underway in India's media landscape, where the television screen remains central to entertainment consumption, but the technology powering that screen is changing rapidly. For advertisers, the message is clear: Connected TV is no longer a channel to experiment with, it is increasingly becoming a mainstream pillar of the modern media mix.