The Roku company logo is displayed on a building in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25, 2021.Mike Blake/Reuters
Vass Bednar is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. She is the executive director of McMaster University’s master of public policy program and co-author of The Big Fix.
Netflix has been watching us – and dumbing down content for when we’re half-watching it. At the same time, people are cancelling their streaming subscriptions in light of the tariff war, turning to the new world of free ad-supported streaming television (“FAST”), where free viewing comes with significant privacy trade-offs.
Netflix’s recent moves signal a shift toward the kind of passive, always-on viewing experience that defines FAST TV. While FAST channels mimic traditional over-the-air and cable television with continuous streams of content, Netflix has been experimenting with live programming like WWE’s Monday Night Raw and the upcoming John Mulaney show. These real-time options make watching shows the communal, real-time cultural event it once was.
FAST streaming platforms offer free, live channels and on-demand libraries that are funded entirely by advertising instead of a recurring monthly payment. It’s TV’s full-circle moment: a return to ad-supported programming. FAST’s biggest players – Pluto TV (Paramount), Tubi (Fox), Freevee (Amazon), and Roku – are owned by broadcasting giants. While Canada lacks a major FAST platform, companies like Blue Ant Media and Gusto TV provide content for them.
We may turn on the TV to tune out a little, and get away from the noise of online life. But television is just a subtle extension of that ad-driven ecosystem. Hyper-targeted ads and product placement are revolutionizing the viewing experience. A 2024 report on “How TV Watches Us” characterized connected TV as “a massive data-driven surveillance apparatus,” transforming the television set into a tracking and targeting device.
And the audience for this is growing fast. Pluto TV and Tubi now each boast over 90 million active users, with FAST platforms projected to generate $6.1-billion in ad revenue this year. More than 95 per cent of Tubi’s viewership is on-demand rather than “live” channel surfing. Even though the channels look like TV, viewership stats show that people still prefer to consume content on their own time.
With scheduled channels, familiar shows, and commercial breaks, FAST mimics classic TV, but under the hood, it’s a data-driven, ad-tech machine. Every click, pause, and watch-time metric is logged, sold, and used to refine ad targeting. In the network TV era, everyone watching Corner Gas saw the same Ford commercial. But FAST instead uses AI-driven dynamic ad placement to tailor commercials to individual viewers.
As a result of this targeting precision, political ad spending on streaming is booming. Parties were expected to spend $1.5-billion on targeted television ads in the 2024 U.S. election, nearly half of their digital political ad spends. Campaigns know streaming offers precise voter targeting unmatched by traditional media.
Recent election cycles have seen a marked increase in political ad spending on streaming services. For instance, projections indicate that Connected TV (CTV) advertising, a category encompassing FAST platforms, was anticipated to attract $1.5-billion in political advertising spend for the 2024 presidential elections, accounting for nearly half of all political digital advertising dollars. This shift underscores the growing recognition of streaming platforms’ ability to reach voters more precisely than traditional media.
These political ads are micro-targeting voters with carefully calibrated messages that dodge public scrutiny. A 2020 Mozilla study flagged a major blind spot: nearly every platform received a failing grade on ad transparency, making political ad targeting nearly invisible.
And it’s not just the apps that are spying, it can also be the hardware. Smart TVs with Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) can detect what’s playing on the screen at all times, even if you’re watching a DVD or gaming. Companies like Samsung, LG, and Vizio even operate their own FAST platforms, making their channels the default home screen experience.
In 2017, Vizio was fined $2.2 million by the U.S. FTC for secretly collecting viewing data from 11 million TVs. Today, most smart TVs disclose these tracking features, but the balance of power remains with companies, not consumers. The FTC published a report last September that examined the data practices of social media and video streaming services, concluding that companies engage in “vast surveillance” of users and, in some cases, non-users. Canada has not considered a similar investigation.
Beyond privacy concerns and political influencing, FAST raises another question: What does it mean for content quality? FAST TV often repurposes older shows and lower-budget productions, curating themed, always-on channels. Critics worry it could create a race to the bottom, where platforms churn out cheap programming to fill channels and chase ad dollars instead of investing in high-quality storytelling. Some, like Freevee, fund exclusives (Bosch: Legacy, Jury Duty), but FAST largely thrives on nostalgia over new creations.
On the surface, FAST TV is a win: seemingly free content without the subscription fatigue. But the real cost is privacy. So next time a perfectly tailored ad pops up during a Schitt’s Creek rewatch, just remember: you’re not just watching TV. TV is watching you.