It bears repeating: TV advertising works. In our Video-on-Demand Evolution 2025 survey, about three-quarters (74%) of TV streamers told us that they’d taken a measurable action in response to a TV ad they had seen.Since we started conducting this annual survey five years ago, we’ve observed how digital can potentially make TV advertising even more powerful by shortening the path to purchase. We’ve also seen new interactive ad formats start to emerge, opening up new possibilities for brands.
This post looks at how TV streamers most often respond to TV streaming ads today, including emerging ways of interacting with ads, before taking a glimpse at what the future holds for advertising on connected TV. But first, let’s consider how Canadians feel about TV advertising, compared with other media.
The media experience is becoming increasingly fragmented, with different services and devices pulling us in every direction. Despite this, when it comes to entertainment, TV has retained its gravitational pull, and advertising on the medium is still effective.
According to a study by Ipsos and ThinkTV, TV is the top media choice for Canadians, and TV advertising is seen as the most compelling form of advertising.
It also found that when Canadians were asked which media source (out of TV, YouTube and social media) is most likely to carry advertising that sticks in the memory, TV was the most often cited with 40% – more than four times more than the other two sources.
This makes intuitive sense – we’re likely to be less distracted when watching TV on a TV screen, rather than on a smaller device. Meanwhile, the storytelling that TV provides can make more of an emotional impact.
Canadians are also more likely to trust TV advertising. In a YouGov study (page 28) among Canadian adults, 62% agreed that out of TV, online video and social media, TV carries video advertising that is the most trustworthy.
These factors combine to set the stage for effective TV advertising – viewers are relaxed, but engaged. On a streaming platform, they’ve made an active decision about what to watch. So how do Canadian TV streamers respond to ads?
Among the most common actions TV streamers take after seeing an ad are visiting the brand’s website or app (cited by 42%), going online to search for more information about the product or brand advertised (41%), and placing items in their online shopping basket or on an app to buy later (28%).
Our research found that younger streamers are, on average, more responsive to TV advertising – 86% of 18-24s have responded to an ad – but TV advertising also has an impact among older streamers. About two-thirds (69%) of streamers aged 55 and over said that they’d taken action in response to a TV ad, with 42% having visited a brand website or app.
An increasing number of TV streamers are responding to ads in these new novel ways:
Interactive overlays over video ads, and destinations known as brand showcases, are the newest formats that Roku offers to brands to make it easy for streamers to request more information by email or text from a brand. Innovations like these, where all the action takes place within the platform (rather than on a mobile phone or another device), make it easier for advertisers to track ROI. According to our survey, 14% have clicked with their remote for more info to buy, 10% for an email and 7% for a text.
With the majority (55%) of Canadian TV viewers now reachable by ads (this rises to 69% of TV streamers), it has never been a better time for brands to think about creative ways of reaching their audiences through streaming TV.
To find out more about attitudes to TV streaming advertising among Canadians, and how to build ad campaigns that work, download Roku’s Video-on-Demand Evolution 2025 report.