YouTube Is Canada's #1 Streaming Platform. Here's What That Means for Your Media Plan.

For years, the media planning conversation in Canada has orbited around the usual suspects: broadcast, the big streaming services, and whoever's algorithm was trending that quarter. YouTube has always been in the room, but not always at the head of the table. That just changed.

New third-party research from Numeris shows that YouTube is now the most-watched streaming platform in Canada, beating Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. Among adults 18-44, it leads not just in reach but in total time spent, outperforming all major broadcasters and streaming services. And for advertisers specifically, it holds the largest ad-supported reach of any streaming platform available in this country.

That's a significant finding. It deserves more than a passing mention in a media planning deck.

Why this matters more than the headline suggests

The instinct when you see a stat like this is to file it under "good to know" and move on. Resist that instinct. What Numeris is measuring here is not just usage. It's sustained, habitual attention. YouTube is where Canadians are choosing to spend time, not just where they land by default.

That distinction matters for marketers. Engagement on a platform someone chose to be on looks different from engagement on a platform they defaulted to. The intent behind the viewing session shapes how receptive an audience is to the content around it, including advertising.

YouTube's dominance in the 18-44 cohort is worth sitting with. This is the segment that is simultaneously the hardest to reach via traditional broadcast and the most valuable for brands building long-term relationships. If that audience is spending more time on YouTube than anywhere else, by reach and by minutes, the question isn't whether YouTube belongs in the plan. The question is whether it's receiving investment proportional to the attention it commands.

Many Canadian media plans still treat YouTube as a supplementary digital buy rather than a primary video channel. The Numeris data suggests that framing is backwards. YouTube isn't where Canadians go when they're done watching television. For a significant portion of the country, it is the television.

The ad-supported reach piece is the sleeper story

The number-one streaming ranking will get the attention, but the ad-supported reach finding may be more actionable. Among the streaming platforms available in Canada, YouTube has the largest ad-supported audience. That's the universe where advertisers can actually reach people.

Netflix and Disney+ have grown their ad-supported tiers, and they're legitimate options. But they're still building audience at scale. YouTube has been running at ad-supported scale for years, and Numeris has now quantified what that looks like in Canada: it's the largest addressable audience in streaming.

What YouTube announced at Brandcast 2026

The data came alongside YouTube's annual Brandcast event in New York, where the platform also unveiled a set of new AI-powered ad products.

Multimodal Video Creation uses Google's AI models, including Gemini, Nano Banana, and Veo, to move from a creative brief to final video production with a handful of prompts. Global availability is set for Q3. For marketers without large production budgets, this could lower the barrier to quality video creative in a meaningful way.

Masthead with Custom Content Shelf enhances YouTube's most prominent placement, letting marketers curate additional content alongside their hero creative. Global Beta launches in Q4.

Buy with Google Pay allows viewers to complete a purchase directly on their connected TV with two clicks, no redirect, no friction. Global Beta launches later this year. For brands with CTV investment and a direct-to-consumer component, this is the closest thing to a shoppable TV ad that has existed at scale.

Affiliate Partnerships Boost lets brands amplify organic content where their products are already tagged via YouTube Shopping affiliate links, a benefit for both the brand and the creator whose content gets boosted. Currently rolling out in select markets.

Custom Sponsorships uses AI to dynamically surface videos tailored to a brand's desired moment, also currently in early availability in select markets.

The product announcements are interesting, but they're secondary to the data. New ad formats matter most when there's a large, engaged audience to reach with them, and Numeris has confirmed that audience exists in Canada at a scale that should shift how the platform is positioned in media plans.

What to do with this

The Numeris findings aren't a mandate to shift your entire budget overnight. They are a prompt to audit a few assumptions.

If YouTube is sitting in a "digital display" or "social" line item in your plan, it's probably being evaluated by the wrong metrics and allocated accordingly. YouTube is a video channel. Measure it against other video channels and evaluate its reach and efficiency from there.

Take the 18-44 data seriously if that's your audience. Broadcast reach in that cohort has been declining for years. YouTube now leads in both weekly reach and total time spent among Canadian adults in that age group. That's not a niche finding.

The ad-supported reach number is also your brief-writing ammunition. If you're making the internal case for YouTube investment, you now have a third-party Numeris citation showing it has the largest ad-supported audience of any streaming platform in Canada.

Watch the Multimodal Video Creation tool closely. The production cost argument against YouTube as a primary channel becomes harder to sustain if AI-assisted video production closes the creative gap. Q3 is worth tracking.

And if you have a direct commerce component, the Buy with Google Pay Beta later this year is worth getting into early. Two-click purchasing on the living room screen is a fundamentally different behaviour from anything that has existed on television before.

The bottom line: YouTube has earned a primary spot in the Canadian media plan, not as a supplementary digital buy, but as a video channel with the largest ad-supported reach in the country. The Numeris data makes that case with third-party credibility. The new ad products give you more ways to act on it.

Source: Numeris, third-party research, Canada, Sep. 1 – Nov. 30, 2025