Bell Media and TELUS on May 21, 2026, announced a strategic agreement to expand live Connected TV ad inventory across the TELUS TV+ platform, bringing TSN and CTV channels into a live linear ad replacement framework for the first time. The deal is the first of its kind between a Canadian broadcaster and a broadcast distribution undertaking (BDU), according to Bell Media.

The announcement extends Bell Media's Connected TV Live offering into Western Canada - specifically Alberta and British Columbia, which are the two provinces where TELUS TV+ has its core footprint. Previously, Bell Media's live Connected TV inventory reached households in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada through the Bell Fibe network. The TELUS agreement fills a substantial geographic gap, giving national advertisers access to live-linear inventory from a single source for the first time.

What live ad replacement means technically

Live ad replacement - sometimes called dynamic ad insertion in live linear streams - is technically distinct from the on-demand ad serving that has become common across video platforms. In an on-demand environment, the ad decisioning system has time to fetch, auction, and return a creative before the viewer reaches a break. In a live stream, that window shrinks to milliseconds. The broadcaster and distributor must synchronise cue-tone signals, the ad server must return a fill before the break begins, and the inserted creative must stitch into the stream without a visible seam.

According to Bell Media, the expanded offering includes seamless ad insertion within live streams, contextual and audience-based targeting, real-time campaign reporting, and full programmatic activation across major demand-side platforms (DSPs). That final point matters: programmatic access means buyers do not need to execute separate direct deals with TELUS. Inventory is available through the existing programmatic infrastructure that advertisers already use to access Bell Media's digital supply.

The IAB Tech Lab, in its August 2025 CTV Ad Ops Workshop covered by PPC Land, identified live ad serving as one of the most technically demanding problems in the industry. Operations professionals from Paramount, NBC, DirectTV, Samsung, Fox, Disney, and Yahoo participated in that session, examining how concurrent large audiences, cue-tone timing, and VAST version fragmentation collectively make live linear ad serving harder to scale than on-demand. The Bell Media - TELUS deal is one of the first examples in Canada of a broadcaster and a distributor formally integrating their systems to address those challenges at a national level.

The geography of the deal

TELUS TV+ is an internet protocol television service concentrated in Alberta and British Columbia, where TELUS operates its PureFibre network. The company began offering IPTV service in Alberta communities as early as November 2005 under the Optik TV brand, building a subscriber base that reached over one million customers by February 2017. The TV+ platform is the evolution of that service, combining live linear channels with streaming integrations.

The significance of the geographic addition is not merely provincial. Alberta and British Columbia together represent Canada's two westernmost major population centres - Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver among the largest cities. For advertisers running national campaigns on TSN and CTV, the absence of live-replaceable inventory across those markets meant Western Canada audiences were effectively excluded from addressable targeting on live linear content. The agreement closes that gap.

Bell Media's existing footprint through Bell Fibe covers Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. Together, the two platforms now give the broadcaster reach across all major Canadian regions for live-linear programmatic inventory on TSN and CTV - a combination that did not exist before May 21, 2026.

Building on the 2023 addressable TV launch

The current agreement is an extension of Bell Media's broader push into addressable and Connected TV advertising that began formally in 2023. According to Bell Media, the TELUS deal builds on its industry-leading launch of Addressable TV in 2023, which introduced the capability to serve different ads to different households watching the same broadcast. Will Robertson, who leads advertising technology for streaming TV at TELUS and previously served as Senior Product Manager for Advanced Advertising at Bell Media between July 2022 and June 2025, described the launch as "another chapter for the TELUS TV+ advertising platform, and this one's a big one" in a LinkedIn post announcing the initiative.

Robertson noted that Bell Media is the first broadcaster to join the TELUS platform for live linear ad replacement. His background - three years building Bell Media's digital ad products across connected TV, video, audio, and display before moving to TELUS in June 2025 to lead advertising technology and data monetisation - positions him as one of the architects on both sides of the arrangement.

TSN, which is Canada's leading sports network and reaches over 21.2 million viewers across its five channels, was added to Bell Media's Connected TV Live inventory earlier in the product's history. According to Bell Media data, TSN live CoTV inventory was generating over 50 million monthly impressions at the time of that earlier integration. The addition of TSN to the TELUS platform takes that sports inventory into markets where Bell Fibe does not operate, giving sports-focused campaigns the Western Canada reach that direct-to-consumer brands and national advertisers have long sought during live events.

The programmatic stack

The technical architecture behind the deal combines Bell Media's ad technology, TELUS's streaming delivery infrastructure, and unnamed third-party advertising technology platforms. According to Bell Media, the offering supports contextual and audience-based targeting, real-time campaign reporting, and full programmatic activation across major DSPs.

The phrase "major DSPs" is significant. It means the inventory is accessible without direct integration work on the agency side - buyers using platforms like The Trade Desk, DV360, or others can reach the inventory through existing Private Marketplace deals or open programmatic channels, subject to how Bell Media has structured access. Bell Media's existing Bell Marketing Platform - an omnichannel self-serve system that includes Bell Audience Manager, Strategic Audience Management (SAM), and Bell Attribution Insights - provides the data layer for targeting and measurement.

The programmatic live CTV market has been evolving rapidly. PPC Land's analysis of seven competing video ad serversin November 2025 found that Google Ad Manager, FreeWheel's Streaming Hub, Publica by IAS, and SpringServe by Magnite have each developed specialised CTV capabilities - including server-side ad insertion (SSAI) - targeting different publisher segments. Magnite's Live Scheduler, launched November 18, 2025, established a standardised framework for how media owners and advertisers transact on live streaming content. Bell Media has not confirmed which specific ad server underpins the TELUS TV+ integration.

The challenge of live ad serving at scale is one the wider industry has been working to address. Google Ad Manager introduced CTV Live-biddable capabilities in November 2025 to enable publishers to monetise unpredictable live events through real-time programmatic transactions, with the announcement noting that 82 percent of buyers indicated they were likely to increase programmatic live CTV investment over the following 12 months.

Why this matters for media buyers

For the advertising community, the structural change introduced by this deal is national scale for live Connected TV on premium Canadian broadcast inventory. Before May 2026, a media buyer planning a live sports campaign on TSN faced a fragmented execution: Bell Media's addressable inventory in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada, but no live-replaceable digital inventory in Alberta or British Columbia through TELUS. That meant either accepting different ad treatment across regions or running separate deals.

The CTV measurement and conversion challenge has been a persistent concern for buyers, as PPC Land has documented. CTV's share of media budgets doubled from 14 percent in 2023 to 28 percent in 2025, with 72 percent of marketers planning to increase programmatic advertising investment. That growth has run alongside persistent concerns about measurement consistency. The Bell Media offering includes real-time campaign reporting, which addresses one part of that concern - though full outcome measurement depends on the attribution integrations buyers have in place.

The deal also signals a structural shift in how Canadian broadcaster-distributor relationships can function commercially. According to Bell Media, this is the first agreement between a Canadian broadcaster and a BDU to bring live linear ad replacement to market. The framing suggests a template: other broadcasters and distributors in Canada may follow with similar arrangements. Bell Media confirmed it will continue exploring opportunities to expand its capabilities to additional broadcasters and distributors.

Payal Gabrani-Bahl, SVP, Data and Advertising Products and Platforms at Bell Media, said in the announcement: "Bell Media continues to lead the evolution of Connected TV live in Canada. By launching with TELUS, we are extending our advertising solutions to Western Canada and enabling national scale for advertisers who want to reach audiences during live news, entertainment, and premium sports. This expansion unlocks new value for the entire ecosystem and delivers a more relevant viewing experience for Canadians."

Amit Nag, VP, Smart Home and Entertainment at TELUS, said: "We are excited to enable Bell Media to bring live ad replacement to TELUS TV+ for the first time. This launch introduces powerful new capabilities for advertisers and enhances the TV experience for our customers with more relevant, personalized advertising. We look forward to building on this momentum and driving continued innovation in Canada's streaming landscape."

Context in the broader live CTV market

The Bell Media - TELUS agreement arrives as live linear ad replacement becomes an active area of development globally. In the United States, Disney expanded biddable ad technology across streaming platforms in April 2025, enabling programmatic integration for live content on Hulu, Disney+, ESPN, and ABC News. Comcast Advertising introduced biddable linear TV inventory through programmatic private marketplaces using FreeWheel's Buyer Cloud in October 2025, as PPC Land has tracked.

In Europe, the IAB Europe's April 2026 guide on programmatic CTV, covered by PPC Land, dedicated a full section to live events as a distinct technical challenge - noting that sports, news, and tentpole moments deliver highly attentive, concurrent audiences at scale, while requiring real-time ad decisioning under time pressure that on-demand systems are not designed to handle. The Canadian market has been slower than the US to formalise live linear programmaticarrangements between broadcasters and distributors, which makes the Bell Media - TELUS deal notable in regional terms.

Bell Media's portfolio, according to the company's LinkedIn profile, includes CTV - Canada's most-watched television network - TSN, RDS, Crave, CTV2, a suite of specialty channels, Noovo, iHeartRadio Canada, and the Astral out-of-home advertising network. The company is a subsidiary of BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada's largest communications company by total revenue and total combined customer connections. TELUS operates across mobility, home internet, and TV services, with its PureFibre infrastructure particularly concentrated in British Columbia and Alberta.

The Mediaocean Prisma Direct analysis from March 2026, tracked by PPC Land, noted that Disney's Real-Time Ad Exchange connected with Amazon DSP in June 2025, providing access to Disney+ and Hulu inventory combined with Amazon commerce data. Deals of that structure - combining broadcaster inventory, distributor delivery, and DSP access in a single arrangement - represent the direction the live CTV market is moving. The Bell Media - TELUS agreement fits that pattern, though in a distinctly Canadian regulatory and distribution context.

Timeline

  • 2005, November - TELUS launches IPTV service in select Alberta communities, the predecessor to what eventually becomes TELUS TV+.
  • 2017, February - TELUS Optik TV surpasses one million subscribers.
  • 2021, August - IAS acquires Publica for $220 million, expanding Connected TV ad serving capabilities including unified auction technology and server-side ad insertion, an infrastructure piece relevant to live inventory markets.
  • 2023 - Bell Media launches Addressable TV, its first formal move into household-level targeted advertising on broadcast inventory, establishing the foundation the TELUS deal would build on.
  • 2025, March - Bell Media adds live Connected TV inventory to TSN, Canada's leading sports network, generating over 50 million monthly impressions. TSN joins CTV, CTV2, and other channels in Bell Media's CoTV portfolio. (Media in Canada, March 11, 2025)
  • 2025, April - Disney expands biddable ad technology across streaming platforms including live content on Hulu, Disney+, ESPN, and ABC News.
  • 2025, May - TELUS TV expands availability to Ontario and additional regions of Quebec, extending beyond its original Alberta and British Columbia footprint.
  • 2025, August - IAB Tech Lab CTV Ad Ops Workshop identifies live ad serving as one of the most technically demanding challenges in the industry; PPC Land covers the session. (PPC Land)
  • 2025, October - Comcast Advertising introduces biddable linear TV inventory through programmatic private marketplaces using FreeWheel's Buyer Cloud.
  • 2025, November - Magnite launches Live Scheduler, establishing a standardised framework for live streaming ad transactions. (PPC Land)
  • 2025, November - Google Ad Manager introduces CTV Live-biddable capabilities; 82 percent of buyers indicate they are likely to increase programmatic live CTV investment. (PPC Land)
  • 2026, January - Google opens NBCUniversal Winter Olympics inventory to programmatic ads with cross-device conversion tracking. (PPC Land)
  • 2026, March - Magnite reports CTV contribution ex-TAC guidance of $76 million to $78 million for Q1 2026. PPC Land examines live soccer streaming and whether programmatic infrastructure can scale. (PPC Land)
  • 2026, April - IAB Europe publishes its most detailed programmatic CTV guide, dedicating a section to live events as a distinct technical challenge. (PPC Land)
  • 2026, May 21 - Bell Media and TELUS announce a strategic agreement bringing live linear ad replacement to the TELUS TV+ platform across TSN and CTV, marking the first such broadcaster-BDU arrangement in Canada and extending Bell Media's live Connected TV inventory to Alberta and British Columbia.

Summary

Who: Bell Media, Canada's leading media and entertainment company and a subsidiary of BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), and TELUS, one of Canada's largest telecommunications companies, operating primarily in British Columbia and Alberta.

What: A strategic agreement enabling live linear ad replacement on the TELUS TV+ platform across TSN, CTV, and leading English-language specialty channels. The arrangement includes seamless ad insertion within live streams, contextual and audience-based targeting, real-time campaign reporting, and full programmatic activation across major DSPs. It is the first deal of its kind between a Canadian broadcaster and a broadcast distribution undertaking.

When: Announced May 21, 2026. The deal builds on Bell Media's Addressable TV launch in 2023 and its addition of live Connected TV inventory to TSN in early 2025.

Where: The expanded inventory covers Alberta and British Columbia through the TELUS TV+ platform, complementing Bell Media's existing live Connected TV footprint in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada via the Bell Fibe network.

Why: The agreement gives national advertisers access to live-replaceable Connected TV inventory across all major Canadian regions for the first time, enabling consistent programmatic campaign execution on TSN and CTV during live sports, news, and entertainment - without requiring separate regional deals. It also establishes a precedent for broadcaster-BDU commercial arrangements in Canada's streaming advertising landscape.