http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhYbU97Y4p0

Nielsen said 98.7 million people, on average, were watching Pittsburgh's exciting 27-23 victory Sunday night. That beats the 97.5 million who watched the 2008 game, which held the record for most popular Super Bowl.

On Monday, Nielsen had reported that this year's game had 95.4 million viewers - impressive, but not a record-setter.

Nielsen explained the discrepancy of more than three million viewers by saying a more complete check of their records revealed additional viewership on some digital tier networks. The company hadn't been aware that they were showing the game.

But get this in Canada, CTV carried the game and attracted an average audience of 3.602 million viewers, which was down from the 4.167 million who tuned in for the 2008 game. I guarantee if they have the same rules as next year it will go down even more.

As for the argument that commercials should be considered programming, that goes counter to the very purpose of simultaneous substitution, which is to protect local advertising.

Therefore the case can be made that the U.S. coverage of the game is not the same as the Canadian broadcast, and the latter should not override the former.

As to commercials, I don’t know if CTV employs anyone with even a modicum of hustle in trying to sell their Super Bowl commercials. All we got, with a few exceptions, were either older, stale commercials we had seen too often before (and repeated multiple time during the game) or self promotions for either CTV programming or (in our case) for Star Choice. Although, I think that CTV did sell/run two Bud Super Bowl commercials.

I don’t understand why CTV (or whichever network has next year’s game) doesn’t approach those Super Bowl advertisers, who have a presence in Canada, to have them advertise on the Canadian broadcast. The rate doesn’t need to be anywhere near the U.S. price, and I am sure many of those companies wouldn’t be adverse to spending a few more bucks to get further bang for the production money they invested in making the commercials.

The following year, I got a US broadcast setup so I could enjoy the ads the super bowl is FAMOUS FOR. Then I carefully went beer shopping on SATURDAY, and thought I would grab an 18 pack of BUDWEISER and an 18 pack of COORS LIGHT in bottles so I could celebrate the spirit of the Super Bowl with CHEAP, crappy, American Beer. When I asked the cashier what the damage was, and he said, "that'll be $65 and change" I said, you're joking right? He said "No, that's what they cost." I then asked if I was being robbed, because I felt like I was. So, I said, let me get this straight...this beer is brewed DOMESTICALLY (in Canada) and doesn't qualify as an "import" beer, and yet the price is 3 times what it would cost in the US? My suspicions were confirmed. Indeed, Budweiser goes for $1.80/bottle in Vancouver, BC.

This year, since I had moved and lost my ability to pickup a US broadcast I got stuck watching the Super Bowl at a friend's house on cable--and suffered the wrath of CTV. I had even picked up the 3D glasses to watch an ad in 3D, but it never aired. Once again I got the hockey stick in the a$$ for trying to enjoy a Super Bowl the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

Oh Canada...always pays higher prices for the same products available in the US, doesn't have any acceptable choices for Satellite or Cable TV--certainly not at acceptable prices...I guess we'll have to settle for having healthier people and better looking women than the US...but forget about affordable cell phones or decent TV.

Can anyone on Shaw recommend a channel to watch the US feed so I can watch the American commercials? The CTV feed sucks and there are only so many olympic commercials and fertilizer commercials a man can watch.

The 3 HD feeds are all copies of CTV feed. Even Channel 83 (detroit) is a copy of the HD feed.

I think the only option would be to stream online. It's pretty lame if you ask me.

As has been discussed, CTV's blocked all US feeds for the first time this year for most cable provider's feed, unless I think if you're on Star Choice.

It is lame. In the last few years they still left channel 83 alone so we could watch the true US feed. Damn CTV...greedy useless buggers.

Ya, it really blows.

Anyone have sound issues or is that my system. It keeps getting louder and quiter etc. Damn CTV screwing up the audio from NBC.

Im so pumped to have to be subjected to the worlds lamest commercial (that oil and gas in Alberta one). WTF. Every year we get snubbed.

Unf***ing believable that I pay for the U.S. channels but I have to sit here and watch Canadian commercials.

F-Off Shaw and the CRTC. I hate this crap.

If we pay for US networks, we should have the ability to watch their commercials. Or at least show at least half of the commercials from US. Thats part of the super bowl experience.

A buddy of mine that worked for starchoice said if you soft reset the receiver you can get the US feeds.

Turn off the receiver, unhook the sat cable, wait a minute or so, plug it back in and turn it on. Apparently the US feed will stay on for 45 minutes.

I have expressvu so I have no idea if this works or not.

What's most annoying are those CTV bumpers at the end of the commercial breaks - they don't time it properly to start with the game broadcast.

I just noticed it now (I was watching Death Race), f--k CTV, Superbowl commercials are better than the freakin Superbowl for crying out loud.

If anything, the repeated commercials of Corner Gas not only reminded me that I was missing the US commercials, but also made me hate Corner Gas. And I did NOT watch the Mentalist after the Superbowl because I was on the internet trying to watch all the commercials I just missed. Nice try, CTV...

It's truly amazing that the Canadian government, a government for the people by the people, allowed the interests of a few wealthy media executives to overtake the interests of the overwhelming majority. In fact, there is nothing that even remotely ties such an action with a democratic notion. To go out on a limb, one could argue the action is fascist -- fascism is in part defined as a perfect marriage between the business and government.

These piss poor Canadian commercials drive me up the wall. CTV ran a ton of their own promos (anyone know when FOX’s Fringe is on CrapTV? Who is hosting the Junos this year?). I've watched enough Sportsnet broadcasts to have developed an unhealthy disdain for that fat construction guy making Panago pizza. And those damn Telus penguins can go to hell and die.

It is the same reason I don't listen to local radio much anymore. Cancon thinks I need to listen to a certain percentage of Canadian music over their regulated airwaves. Cancon can b**w me. The next step for them is to start running Canadian commercials over the satellite radio stations I listen to. These dudes are evil people. Evil!

This isn't about being able to watch U.S. commercials, not totally at least. I can watch those commercials online later if I really want to. For me, I'm po'd because I pay money for the U.S. channels so I can watch U.S. content. I don't pay for those channels so I can watch a pizza hut pasta commercial 12 times or the Russel Peters Juno spot 15 times. If I want to see those I can easily watch my local CTV station. I know people have jokingly said this is borderline facism but I'm not so sure it isn't. The CRTC decisionmakers must think they know what we want better than we do ourselves.