Finally: Smart TV Engagement That’s Built for OTT Growth

Smart TVs are quietly becoming a marketer’s dream: a high-reach, underused engagement channel packed with potential. Added with the burgeoning second-screen or dual-screening tendencies of users. Today’s digitally savvy OTT consumers jump fluidly between screens, starting a show on their phone, switching to TV, and browsing social feeds in between. But most OTT platforms still treat these different screens of the same consumer, as silos, leading to fragmented data, inaccurate profiling and thus clunky engagement. CleverTap’s Connected TV Integration bridges this gap by capturing user activity on Smart TVs and linking it with mobile, web and actions and behavior on other platforms, so you, as the OTT brand, can deliver a continuous personalized, multi-platform experience that actually converts.

Why Connected TV Should Be Your Next Priority

While traditional TV ad spend declines, Connected TV (CTV) budgets are booming. Global forecasts show CTV budgets growing nearly 20% year-over-year, signaling exactly where consumer attention and money are flowing.

But more eyeballs don’t necessarily mean more loyalty. With subscription churn rates nearing 40%, and over 50% among younger audiences, OTT brands face steep competition to keep users engaged long term.

On top of that, viewers jump freely between devices: streaming on mobile during their commute, then switching seamlessly to their TV at home. If your data isn’t unified, you’ll struggle with your data management and consequently to personalize effectively, measure accurately, or retain viewers.

Enter CleverTap’s Connected TV Integration, your bridge to fully unified user experiences across every screen.

What is Connected TV Integration?

The Connected TV Integration is a fantastic new and additional outreach avenue specifically available for OTT brands to maximise their customer engagement and retention strategies and tactics. Through the Connected TV Integration SDK, OTT brands can no:

• Run multi channel marketing and engagement campaigns on TV devices, 
• capture user events and interactions such as app launches, views, time spent or screen impressions, and collate that data into the CleverTap platform, in real time.

This integration helps unify user behavior across devices. In sum, this means your mobile, web, and TV data all live under one profile so your campaigns, segments, reports and insights are unified even when users switch screens and devices.

Why this matters

With CleverTap’s Connected TV Integration, you can:

• Additional engagement channel: Add a relatively low-cost, high reach engagement channel to your marketing strategy
• Unify your data: Achieve a single customer view across all screens, including mobile, web, and TV
• Retain more viewers: Use real-time, personalized engagement triggered directly from viewing behavior
• Drive more revenue: Prompt timely upsells, reduce churn, and improve lifetime value
• Measure smarter: Gain visibility into how each marketing channel contributes to engagement and conversions, especially the influential big screen experience

What you can do with Connected TV Integration

Here’s where things get exciting. With CleverTap’s Connected TV capabilities brands can launch campaigns, interact with customers in real-time, win-back dormant/at -risk customers and enrich customer profiles.  

1. Launch responsive, binge-ready In-App messages

Your In-App templates shouldn’t break when they hit a 55-inch screen. We’ve built and tested custom HTML In-App templates that work beautifully across mobile, tablet, desktop, and now TV.

Whether you’re nudging viewers to “Watch Now” or teasing a new release with a banner, this template:

• Adjusts fluidly across resolutions, up to 1920px and beyond
• Keeps text and visuals sharp, centered, and readable from the couch
• Supports auto-dismiss, animation, and full event tracking
• Offers CTAs like “Add to Watchlist” or “Resume”

You can also automatically respond to specific TV viewing behaviors—like paused episodes or incomplete streams—by sending timely, relevant follow-ups via In-App messages, keeping viewers engaged without missing a beat.

2. Turn Smart TVs into frictionless checkout points with QR In-App

Ever tried typing a credit card number using a TV remote? Exactly.

Now, if a user’s subscription is about to expire, you can trigger a full-screen TV In-App with a QR code. One scan from their phone takes them straight to the payment page. Zero taps, zero drop-off.

But that’s just the start. You can also use QR codes on TV to:

• Let users log in via mobile (scan and done)
• Encourage app installs from the TV interface
• Upsell trial users with mobile-first checkout journeys
• Drive contest entries or reward claims
• Launch second-screen gamification campaigns

The QR code auto-adapts to screen type and placement, so it’s always scannable—even from the far end of the living room. With strategically placed, easy-to-scan QR codes, you can seamlessly drive loyalty sign-ups, gamified interactions, and effortless second-screen experiences.

3. Make engagement feel native, not noisy

Native Display lets you insert personalized content—like subscription banners, upsell rows, or curated recommendations—right into your TV app’s layout.

Instead of disrupting the viewer with a pop-up, you can guide them softly with in-line visuals that blend into the experience. Think of it as content merchandising, not just messaging.

It’s ideal for OTT brands who want engagement to feel like part of the product, not an interruption.

• Showcase tailored recommendations, premium-tier upgrades, or special offers within the app layout, creating seamless opportunities to drive additional revenue.
• Elevate ARPU with subtle, contextual nudges strategically placed within natural user interactions, blending promotions smoothly with the viewing experience.
• Track viewer actions across mobile, web, and TV to accurately attribute conversions and better understand the effectiveness of your native engagement strategies.

4. Send push-like messages on Android TV (yes, really)

Push notifications don’t work natively on most Smart TVs—but we’ve built a workaround. Using a custom FCM handler and a floating UI layer, you can now send timely nudges on Android TV that look and feel like push alerts.

Whether it’s a reminder to finish that thriller they paused yesterday or a promo for the new season launch, these floating messages stay lightweight and screen-appropriate, without breaking immersion.

Additionally, you can:

• Trigger timely reminders encouraging viewers to finish paused content or announce the availability of new episodes, instantly recapturing user attention.
• Integrate TV engagement signals into predictive churn models, proactively identifying and re-engaging viewers long before they consider canceling.
• Make your marketing as dynamic as your users’ viewing habits, sending personalized, real-time push-like messages precisely when viewers are most receptive.

What this means for your KPIs

• Higher retention: personalised winback flows reduce dormant-day counts and keep monthly churn in check.
• Bigger ARPU: contextual upgrade prompts on the most-watched screen lift subscription tier conversions and ad inventory value.
• Richer attribution: a single source of truth across devices lets growth teams prove that a mobile-push drove a TV play, not guess.
• Lean experimentation: product teams can A/B TV banners or recommendation rows from the CleverTap dashboard—no code release cycles.

How does it work?

The Connected TV  integration is an additional capability run on the CleverTap all-in-one platform. This can be set up through a quick and simple process of adding the CleverTap’s SDK to your OTT app for the supported TV platform. Once successfully integrated, the SDK streams relevant event data, like screen views or content interactions, directly into the CleverTap platform.

These events are automatically associated with user profiles and can be used for segmentation, engagement, and analytics. You can configure your existing journeys to include TV events, so there’s no need to redefine segments or campaigns from scratch.

Conclusion

Connected TV Integration gives OTT marketers a panoramic view of the viewer journey and the tools to act on it instantly. With every device finally speaking the same language, you can craft binge-worthy experiences that feel effortless, whether your audience is on the morning commute or the living-room couch.

Looking to implement this for your OTT platform? Book a free consultation call with our team.