At this week’s Future of TV Canada 2026 conference held in downtown Toronto, representatives from Canada’s largest broadcasters joined a panel discussion led by Chimi Beaumont, SVP, Media Solutions at WPP Media.  

Chimi led the group in a discussion about its proposed initiative, tentatively named the Canadian Coalition for Connected TV (CCCTV).

Panellists included Christopher Mercer, Senior Vice President, Media Solutions and Sales at Corus Entertainment; Hisham Ghostine, Chief Revenue Officer & VP of Business Partnerships at CBC; Jérôme Leys, General Manager at Quebecor; Matt McGowan, SVP, Business Solutions at Bell Media; Rose Hutchison, Senior Director, National Sales & Go-to-Market Strategy at Rogers Sports & Media.

What is the Canadian Coalition for Connected TV (CCCTV)?

While specific details were not made available during the panel discussion, the Canadian Coalition for Connected TV (CCCTV) is a joint initiative from CBC, Corus Entertainment, Bell Media, Quebecor and Rogers Sports & Media to build a shared buying platform that gives advertisers access to all five broadcasters' networks.  The goal is to offer more Canadian-specific advertising options, backed by trusted partners committed to a brand-safe, privacy-compliant environment

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• CBC
• Corus Entertainment
• Quebecor
• Rogers

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CBC’s Hisham was the driving force behind the initiative, inviting the other broadcasters in August—collectively dubbed “the Five Families” by Christopher—to explore creating a single gateway for buyers to access premium Canadian CTV inventory and prevent budgets from defaulting to companies such as Google and Meta.

It is a promising idea in theory, but it left more people with questions than answers. The room remained optimistic that it could work for both the buy and sell sides, and several senior agency executives we spoke with were excited about the prospect of creating new ways to deliver greater value to their clients.

No official technology partners have been announced to handle key functions such as delivery and measurement, but Canadian Ad Insider has learned that early discussions have taken place with several SSPs.

Canada has been here before

In April 2012, CBC/Radio-Canada, Rogers Media and Shaw Media announced the Canadian Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX), a private real-time bidding exchange for their digital inventory. It went live on May 16, 2012, as covered on Profectio, now Canadian Ad Insider. Rogers’ pitch at the time was: “With one bid, advertisers can access three distinct organizations’ premium inventory.” Replace “bid” with “door,” and you have the 2026 pitch.

CPAX grew fast on paper. Corus joined that year. By late 2015 it had 18 member publishers, including Québecor, Postmedia and Blue Ant. But two years in, members described the first phase as a pilot. Sellers weren't seeing the demand they expected. CPMs were underwhelming, and middlemen were selling "access" to CPAX publishers while routing budgets elsewhere. CPAX went dark, switched from AppNexus to Index Exchange, and cut its buyer list by 90% to about 40 approved seats.

Two lessons carry straight into 2026. First, a shared door doesn't create demand by itself; CPAX had to go back and sell it. Second, each member kept its own direct sales team and put only a portion of its inventory into the exchange. If the CCCTV works the same way, buyers will judge it by what's left after each member's own sales team takes its pick.

The coalition will examine similar models from around the world, including those in Germany, the UK and Switzerland, and may adopt elements of them.

Five things that could go wrong with the Canadian Coalition for Connected TV (CCCTV)

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