The Indian economic growth is at an interesting juncture as it stands to witness a rapid growth in affluent households. As per the recent Goldman Sachs – The Rise of Affluent India report, affluent consumers (annual income >$10000) in India have grown from 37 million in 2019 to 60 million in 2023. In the current market, it’s only the affluent consumers who are purchasing high discretionary items and services like international travel (18 Mn households), 4-wheeler ownership (30 Mn households), 3+ Household Durables (56 Mn households). The growth in affluent households will drive adoption in fiber connectivity & CTV growth.
Currently, the fiber connectivity is growing at 5 lac subscriptions per month, as per TRAI in 2023 which corresponds to an annual growth of 18%. The current base of fiber urban households in India is in the range of 20-25 million households. The monthly active CTV households are a subset of urban fiber broadband households.
The steady growth of connected TV observed in India has led to a total of 16-20 Mn urban households (who watch it every month) in 2024, a 20% increase from last year. Fiber broadband connectivity, the driver of CTV usage in India, has been responsible for smart TVs to become truly connected TVs considering that CTV requires a 10-30 MBPS speed to have bare minimum streaming capability.
Among the current monthly active CTV and fiber broadband users, if we observe their proportion among 60 million affluent households, the largest chunk of 40-45 million households still own Pay TVs with limited broadband connectivity. The middle tier consists of 10-15 million households that have both Pay TV and CTV at home with broadband speeds ranging from 10-30 MBPS.
This is also evident from the fact that home broadband ARPUs in India range between INR 600-650, which caters to monthly fiber broadband plans of 10-30 MBPS speed. The top tier, which is the most affluent, consists of 2-4 million households with CTVs and broadband speeds above 30 MBPS.