At the fourth edition of e4m TV First on Thursday, a panel of industry experts discussed connected TV and outlined the challenges and opportunities for marketers India has about 200 million TV households representing 15 million users who have connected TVs at home, several media reports say. Connected TVs (CTVs) are one of the most rapidly growing market segments in India currently and its rising demand cannot be ignored. The spike in the popularity of these internet-enabled devices can be attributed to increasing data penetration, availability of global content among others. At the fourth edition of e4m TV First on Thursday, the panel discussion was conducted on the topic 'Connected TV: Challenges and Opportunities for Marketers'. The virtual conference was chaired by Mohit Joshi, CEO, Havas Media Group India and the panellists were Ajay Kakar, CMO, Aditya Birla Capital and Deba Ghoshal, Vice-President and Head of Marketing, Voltas Limited.   Before beginning the discussion, Joshi highlighted the crux of the topic and spoke on the growth of television in India over the years. He said, “India, as we know is a country where television rules the roost even today. Till 2021 as per the various industry reports that still shows that television is the number one medium when it comes to advertising, however, digital is picking up very fast. We have about 200 million TV households today and if my estimates are correct connected TV, which is very important, still is around 15 million”.   With increased data penetration and availability of global content, advertisers are wanting to achieve the reach of television with the benefit of digital advertising. This is because advertisers want the best of both worlds and which is relevant and correct to ask. According to Ghoshal, this is a very niche segment for a brand like Voltas, which is an all-India player and the leader in its own category. “We are looking at it very seriously as we progress towards a segment. In the last two years, we have seen a lot of traction and as stated by all experts, we should be there in the segment”, Ghoshal said. Ghoshal further outlined his views from a device perspective and being in the consumer durable business. He shared, “India, after the transition from analog TVs to digital TVs and now to smart TVs, there's a huge number which is being created every year. It's being added every year to every household. Now, India sells approximately 12 -13 million TVs every year, which means it goes to every household and out of which 85% smart TVs are sold in this country. If that is happening on a yearly basis, what's happening to the usage of this smart TV? It should also grow significantly, but that's not happening because of various factors which could be not contributing towards the actual usage of smartTV.” From a device perspective, Ghoshal said that they are on the right track. Everybody wants to buy a smart TV and wants to stay connected. “There's a lot of content being created and people aspire to be a part of that content. Somewhere the usage is not so high and this whole process of buying a television which is smart and using it we need to ensure that it happens over a period of time”, he added. During the panel discussion, Joshi asked that as CTV technically combines the best aspects of both digital video and television, what are the opportunities for the brands in India? Kakar, who is CMO of Aditya Birla Capital, quoted the Pitch Madison report which stated that connected TVs are around 40 odd million and are expected to grow four times in about the next three years or 2025. Therefore, the first opportunity is to reach out to a very niche audience in relatively larger numbers than today. “I think that's one big opportunity for an advertiser. The second is the fact that with mobile-first customers, now we have the large screen coming back. The third is as it's a large screen, you can target multiple users at the same time. It's not the private viewing or the personal viewing that a mobile restricted you to”. “The next one we're told because of these benefits like sharper targeting as against linear TV most definitely this media allows you so with connected TV, I can do sharper targeting, and it can impact and monitor through the funnel,” Kakar added.