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 — BVOD, AVOD, SVOD, FAST, CTV, addressable. We cut through all of it. Plan and buy TV advertising across ITVX, Channel 4, Sky AdSmart and beyond — direct, targeted, accountable.
The way the UK watches television has fundamentally shifted — and for advertisers, that shift has created opportunities that simply did not exist five years ago.
73% of UK households now own a smart TV. All age groups under 55 spend more hours per week watching digital video than linear TV. BVOD spend crossed £1 billion for the first time in 2024. CTV ad spend grew 22% year-on-year — faster than any other channel in the IAB's Digital Adspend report.
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 direct — direct relationships with ITVX, Channel 4, Sky AdSmart and other premium environments. No DSP layer, no programmatic margin sitting between your budget and your media.
We also believe the CTV space has a jargon problem. BVOD, AVOD, SVOD, FAST, OTT, addressable, CFAF — 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 CTV landscape. No jargon. No obfuscation. Just a clear lay of the land — because that is where good planning starts.
The UK 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.
This is the catch-up and on-demand service offered by the UK's public and commercial broadcasters — ITVX, Channel 4 (All 4), BBC iPlayer and Channel 5 (My5). Content is funded by advertising (except the BBC) or subscription, and ads are served alongside professionally produced broadcast content.
BVOD is the most brand-safe and premium environment in connected TV — your ad appears in the same break as it would on linear TV, but delivered directly to the viewer's chosen device. Ads are typically unskippable, delivering completion rates above 90%.
AVOD platforms offer free content to viewers supported entirely by advertising revenue. Unlike BVOD, these are not broadcast-derived services — they may include short-form content, licensed library titles, or curated channels. The audience is free to access without a subscription, making reach potentially broad but brand context more variable.
The fastest-growing AVOD format in the UK is FAST — Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV — which delivers linear-style channel experiences over the internet without a subscription or login. Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV and Rakuten TV are key FAST players in the UK.
SVOD platforms — Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video — 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.
The audiences are premium — subscribers who have actively chosen to pay for content — and the brand environment is highly controlled. Netflix's ad-supported tier reached approximately 20% of UK subscribers in 2024, representing millions of reachable viewers in a premium, brand-safe environment.
Addressable TV is not a content type — it is a targeting capability applied to linear TV. Sky AdSmart is the UK's most established addressable TV platform, enabling advertisers to serve different ads to different households watching the same programme at the same time, based on demographic, geographic and behavioural data.
AdSmart reaches over 40% of UK households via Sky and Virgin Media combined. Channel 4 joined AdSmart, significantly expanding the addressable inventory available. Sky, Channel 4 and ITV have announced a joint unified marketplace launching in 2026 — the first time a single buy will reach all three broadcasters' addressable inventory simultaneously.
ITVX is the UK's largest free streaming service — 35 million registered users, the entire ITV back catalogue, and new original content premiered on the platform before linear broadcast. Ads are unskippable and delivered in the same premium environment as linear TV, with first-party audience data enabling precise demographic targeting.
Channel 4's All 4 platform reaches a younger, more digitally-engaged audience than any other UK broadcaster — with a particular strength in 16–34 audiences. Channel 4's Fast Forward strategy is accelerating its transformation into a digital-first streaming service, with growing on-demand inventory and addressable TV capabilities via Sky AdSmart.
Sky AdSmart is the UK's most sophisticated addressable TV platform — serving different ads to different households during the same commercial break, based on demographic, geographic and lifestyle data. Reaches 40%+ of UK households via Sky and Virgin Media. Campaigns can be targeted by postcode, life stage, household income and hundreds of other attributes.
Netflix's ad-supported Standard with Ads tier reached approximately 20% of UK subscribers in 2024 — viewers who have actively chosen to pay for Netflix content while accepting advertising. This is one of the most premium advertising environments in UK streaming, with exceptional brand safety and a highly engaged, high-value audience.
Disney+'s ad-supported tier delivers access to the full Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic catalogues — one of the most brand-associated content libraries available to advertisers. Particularly effective for family, lifestyle, entertainment and any brand seeking association with premium IP-driven content.
Amazon Prime Video introduced advertising in early 2024 — and the unique advantage is Amazon's own retail and purchase intent data, which can be applied to audience targeting. This makes Prime Video particularly powerful for retail, e-commerce and direct response brands who want to connect streaming exposure to purchase behaviour.
For the first time in UK television history, Sky, ITV and Channel 4 have announced joint intent to build a unified premium video advertising marketplace — allowing advertisers to run a single campaign across all three broadcasters' addressable inventory simultaneously.
Set to launch in 2026, the platform will give brands — including SMEs for the first time — access to the combined addressable reach of the UK's three largest commercial broadcasters through a single buy. This is a significant structural shift in how TV advertising is planned and bought in the UK.