Indian media buyers shift CTV budgets back to mobile as attribution gap persists

September 2, 2026 · agencyreporter.com

Eyes-on-screen research from measurement partners working with Indian streaming platforms shows CTV viewers frequently touch, scroll or glance at a phone during the same ad break, according to Agency Reporter. That finding is eroding the co-viewing premium CTV was pitched on, and it is pushing media buyers to route some budget back toward mobile, where a completed video view or a click can be measured with more precision than a CTV impression. Buyers are increasingly sequencing the two screens: a CTV spot opens a campaign with scale and emotional weight, then a mobile push or retargeting ad follows within minutes, sometimes seconds, of the same household seeing the ad. Retargeting windows that once ran for days have shrunk to hours. Quick commerce, fintech and D2C brands with strong app ecosystems, categories with short conversion windows, have moved budget most aggressively, while automotive and real estate advertisers, whose decisions unfold over weeks, have stayed cautious.

Agencies still running CTV and mobile as separate teams, staffed separately and sometimes pitched to clients as distinct capabilities, are losing reallocated budget to competitors that have merged the two desks into one planning function, per Agency Reporter's account of the shift. CTV planners at those merged desks now need to understand mobile creative formats, and performance marketers need to track the emotional arc of a CTV spot, because neither side can claim the full campaign picture alone. The shift also raises the stakes on CTV measurement: unified, third-party-verified currency metrics for CTV reach and frequency remain unfinished in India, and until that infrastructure closes the gap with mobile's attribution, budgets will keep leaning on the channel that can prove its numbers this quarter.