sim·plic·i·ty
1. the state, quality or an instance of being easy to understand
2. freedom from complexity
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The connected TV landscape is full of jargon — AVOD, SVOD, FAST, CTV, programmatic. We cut through all of it. Plan and buy CTV advertising across Canada on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount+, Roku and Samsung Ads — plus full programmatic access. Direct, targeted, accountable.
The way Canadians watch television has fundamentally shifted — and for advertisers, that shift has created opportunities that simply did not exist five years ago.
Canadians now spend an average of 13.4 hours per week streaming video — and all age groups under 55 spend more time watching digital content than linear TV. The Canadian CTV advertising market reached $1.29 billion USD in 2026, growing at 16% year-on-year — the fastest-growing channel in the IAB Canada report. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Paramount+ have all opened ad-supported tiers, and programmatic CTV is scaling rapidly across Roku and Samsung inventory.
The shift from linear to streaming is not a future trend. It has already happened. The question for advertisers is not whether to be in this space, but how to navigate it intelligently.
We buy CTV across Canada — direct relationships with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount+ and Samsung Ads, plus full programmatic access across Roku and the open CTV ecosystem. Complete transparency on where your budget is going, what it costs, and what it delivers.
We also believe the CTV space has a jargon problem. AVOD, SVOD, FAST, OTT, programmatic, addressable — the acronyms multiply faster than most marketers can track them, and too many agencies use the confusion to their advantage. We don't. Our job is to explain exactly what each environment is, what it delivers, and which one is right for your brief.
Below is our plain-English guide to the Canadian CTV landscape. No jargon. No obfuscation. Just a clear lay of the land — because that is where good planning starts.
The Canadian connected TV market uses four main models for delivering video content — and each one has a different advertising opportunity attached to it. Here is what they are, in plain English.
AVOD platforms offer free content to viewers supported entirely by advertising revenue — no subscription required. The audience accesses content for free in exchange for watching ads, making reach potentially very broad. In Canada, the fastest-growing AVOD format is FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) — linear-style channel experiences delivered over the internet without a login or payment.
Samsung TV Plus (via Samsung Ads) and the Roku Channel are the leading FAST/AVOD environments in the Canadian market. Ads are typically unskippable within the stream, with completion rates above 85%.
SVOD platforms — Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ — have historically been advertising-free. That has changed. All three now offer lower-cost ad-supported subscription tiers, opening up advertising inventory that was previously unavailable to brands entirely.
The audiences are premium — subscribers who have actively chosen to pay for content — and the brand environment is highly controlled. These are among the most brand-safe placements available in Canadian streaming, with completion rates consistently above 90% on unskippable formats.
FAST channels replicate the experience of traditional linear TV — scheduled programming, no on-demand selection — but delivered via the internet on smart TVs and streaming devices. No subscription, no login required. Content ranges from news and sports to niche genre channels and archive programming.
FAST is the fastest-growing segment of connected TV in Canada and North America. Samsung TV Plus and the Roku Channel are the dominant FAST platforms. Advertising is sold programmatically or directly and is typically unskippable — viewers accept ads as the cost of free content.
Programmatic CTV means buying streaming video inventory through a Demand-Side Platform (DSP) — rather than negotiating directly with each publisher. Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) provide access to inventory across AVOD, FAST, and ad-supported SVOD tiers through a unified buying interface.
Programmatic CTV enables audience-first targeting — buying against demographic, behavioural and location data rather than a specific show or channel. It is particularly effective for precision targeting, cross-device campaigns and brands with limited budgets who need reach efficiency across multiple platforms simultaneously.
Amazon Prime Video introduced advertising across Canada in early 2024 — and the unique advantage is Amazon's own retail and purchase intent data, which can be layered onto audience targeting. Prime Video is one of the most-watched streaming services in Canada, and its ad inventory is available programmatically via the Amazon DSP or through direct placements. Particularly powerful for retail, e-commerce and direct response brands.
Netflix's ad-supported tier is now available in Canada — giving advertisers access to one of the most engaged streaming audiences in the country. Viewers on the ad-supported plan have actively chosen to pay for Netflix content while accepting advertising, creating an exceptionally brand-safe, high-attention environment. Inventory is available through direct and programmatic partners.
Paramount+ offers an ad-supported tier in Canada with access to a deep catalogue of Paramount, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and BET content. Its particular strength is sport, drama and family content. The platform's Canadian subscriber base has grown significantly since launch, and its ad inventory provides access to a diverse, highly engaged audience at competitive CPMs.
Roku is the leading streaming platform in North America — and a significant CTV buying opportunity in Canada through two routes. First, the Roku Channel provides AVOD and FAST inventory directly. Second, Roku's OneView DSP enables programmatic buying across the broader Roku ecosystem and third-party CTV inventory. Roku's first-party data on streaming behaviour is one of the strongest audience signals available in CTV.
Samsung Ads combines Samsung TV Plus (a FAST channel network) with Samsung's unique automatic content recognition (ACR) data — derived from what viewers actually watch on millions of Samsung smart TVs. This gives Samsung Ads a targeting capability that no broadcaster or streaming service can replicate: deterministic data on linear TV exposure, enabling genuine incremental reach measurement against existing TV campaigns.
Programmatic CTV provides access to the full open CTV ecosystem — AVOD, FAST and ad-supported SVOD tiers — through a single unified interface. Programmatic CTV enables audience-first buying: targeting by demographics, location, device, household composition and behavioural signals rather than a specific channel or show. Ideal for brands needing reach efficiency across multiple platforms on a single budget.
Canadian programmatic CTV has reached an inflection point. DSPs have rapidly expanded CTV inventory access across Canadian publishers and deepened integration with Roku, Amazon and Samsung Ads inventory in the Canadian market. The result is that programmatic CTV is no longer a niche tactic reserved for large brands: it is accessible, measurable, and increasingly efficient at all budget levels.
At the same time, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+ have all launched or expanded ad-supported tiers in Canada — opening premium SVOD inventory that simply did not exist for advertisers two years ago. The Canadian CTV landscape in 2026 offers more inventory, more targeting precision, and more measurement capability than at any point in its history.
| Programmatic CTV entry budget (StackAdapt / The Trade Desk) | $2,000–$5,000 CAD |
| CTV CPM range (platform, targeting and format dependent) | $20–$45 CAD |
| Direct platform buys (Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount+) | From a few thousand CAD per campaign |
| Video completion rate — unskippable CTV formats | 90%+ |