Netflix And Chill Is Out. Rabbits Ears Are In.

Sportchek, Tim Hortons, Samsung and BMW were the few brands working with CBC on content partnerships during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The goal was to create ads that "tell beautiful stories" relevant to the live broadcast to maintain viewer engagement, instead of feeling like an unwelcome interruption to the entertainment. Samsung even handed complete control over to the national broadcaster's production team to make sure the spots "kept the action going".

Amid the Olympic hype around brands, platforms, viewing patterns and advertising tactics, one thing is clear: Viewers were not only tuning in, they were keeping their remote controls down.

A new study in the U.S. reveals 400 brands ran 815 different creatives more than 15,000 times across the six Olympic networks. All of those ads combined averaged a view rate of around 90%. Simply, people weren't flipping channels through commercial breaks.

In Canada, offline usage has grown from five per cent in Fall 2013 to eight per cent in Spring 2016. Why? Millennials in particular are drawn to traditional broadcast television because of the ability to access basic TV for free or as part of a smartphone cable package, while also being able to watch their shows online.

With more eyeballs making their way over to cable television and with broadcasters putting a greater focus than ever before on content partnerships, key for brands in Canada will be making sure your spot knows how to keep viewers' attention.