For 364 days a year, Canadians don't care about what the CRTC calls "simultaneous substitution" - the policy whereby cable and satellite providers replace a U.S. channel with a Canadian one when both are running the same program. (The logic behind this is so the Canadian station gets all the Canadian viewers and can charge higher advertising rates.)
For Montrealers especially, the U.S. ads are pretty forgettable. Local ads for Burlington businesses or ads for products and services that Canadians don't get. Besides, commercials in general are meant to be ignored. Nobody really cares whether the Ford ad lists prices in Canadian or U.S. dollars.
But then there's Super Bowl Sunday. And while the Saints and Colts fight for the National Football League's championship trophy, many television viewers will be looking at the full experience, which includes a halftime show and insanely-expensive commercials. Advertisers turn Super Bowl commercials into events, building up hype and spending through the nose on celebrities and special effects to justify the through-the-nose spending they're doing just to get the airtime.
So if you're a Montrealer watching the Super Bowl and want the U.S. commercials, what can you do?
Here are your options:
- Watch WCAX-DT over the air. As much as the CRTC would like, it can't stop U.S. stations from transmitting across the border. So you can hook up an antenna and watch it that way. The CBS affiliate in Vermont broadcasts from the top of Mount Mansfield, which gives it good coverage in Montreal if you have a good antenna. The catch is that since last year it's broadcasting only in digital, which means you need a television with a digital tuner (most recent HDTVs have this) or a converter box (like this one or this one). (Also note, for antenna purposes, the WCAX-DT transmits on the UHF band, not VHF as it did on analog) Elias Makos has more details for Montrealers wanting to watch U.S. stations over the air.
- Watch WCAX-DT on Videotron Illico digital TV (Channel 653). Videotron has announced that it will leave the CBS station's HD feed untouched during the game, instead of replacing it with the equivalent CTV feed. It can do this because of two rules about simultaneous substitution: that the Canadian signal be of equal or superior quality to the U.S. one, and that the substitution happen in an area covered by the Canadian station's over-the-air signal. Because CFCF is not yet transmitting over the air in HD (it has an HD feed that it makes available to providers), Videotron is not obliged to replace WCAX's HD signal with either the standard definition or high definition feeds of CFCF. Note that this is only for people with HD service. WCAX's standard definition signal on Channel 53 will be replaced by CFCF on Illico.
- Watch WWJ-DT (Detroit) or KIRO-DT (Seattle) on Shaw Direct. For the same reasons as Videotron, Shaw Direct is not required to substitute the U.S. high definition signal for the local one in Montreal. Again, this only applies to the high definition signal. (via Digital Home)
Watch the game on Bell TV. The CRTC closed a loophole last year that would have allowed Bell to give most of its subscribers access to the U.S. Super Bowl feed. If you use Bell TV satellite service, you're out of luck.- Go to a bar or a friend's house. Some bars, like Winnie's and Winston Churchill's Pub, are advertising that they'll be carrying the "American broadcast" of the game, complete with U.S. commercials. Whether the bar has the U.S. feed available probably depends on whether they use Videotron, Shaw or Bell for their TV service.
- Watch the ads online. These advertisers aren't about to sue people who put their ads online, and they're more than welcome to you watching them as many times as you want after the game. YouTube and Spike TV have special sites setup with Super Bowl commercials. The latter includes an archive of past Super Bowl ads. (UPDATE: Adweek has a section on Super Bowl ads too)
Hmm...what about Videotron's time-shifting US feed from Seattle?
Presumably, the Seattle station would not be time-shifted and would be carrying the Super Bowl live. If so, it's subject to the same simultaneous substitution rules - the standard definition feed must be substituted. (Videotron doesn't carry the time-shifting stations in HD.)
How funny that the SD channel 53 (WCAX) is NOT carrying the US feed but its HD equivalent is. Selling more HD subscriptions Videotron ?
Videotron is required to substitute the standard definition feed of WCAX (Channel 53) with the SD feed of CFCF (Channel 7) by CRTC rules. That requirement isn't present for the HD channel (Channel 653) only because CFCF isn't broadcasting in HD. It has nothing to do with marketing (although Videotron is advertising the fact that it's making use of the loophole).
Oh there's no shortage of Canadians who think SSS stinks on many, if not all, those 364 other days. Even so, we all take gratification that CTV literally jammed the commercial time for Winter Olympics plugs instead of anything that actually makes them ad revenue. Nice to know the next time they go out crying poverty and putting "local TV' on the chopping block as a threat.
Though that's usually because of technical problems (incorrect timing, poor signal, etc.) than a desire to see U.S. commercials.
Still, it's quite a pain in the butt!
It was also very annoying when Global had the terrible habit of putting "On Global" on every title card of shows they broadcasted (thank God they stopped that).
I just don't understand why Global and CTV insist on airing so many American TV shows. Maybe if they would spend more money on original Canadian content, instead of paying for an American series and imposing itself on the American affiliate.
Fair comment. But here's the thing - ask a viewer if they'd prefer those cheesy car dealership commercials stateside over 3,590 plugs reminding people that the Winter Olympics will be broadcast on CTV, what do you think they'd choose? Which brings up another point - CTV can cry all they want about local TV being a money loser but how much "profit" did they actually pull on the Super Bowl. I mean, you didn't even need two hands to count the number of non-CTV programming ads (read: non-CTV Winter Olympics plugs). They sure aren't getting $3 million per 30 seconds. Heck, they aren't even getting a tenth of that. Heck, Global would not only have a flood of ads but would toss in those ultra-annoying superimposed scoreboard and crowd advertiser plugs. Then today, CTV announces a four-year extension of their broadcast agreement with the NFL. Bet on a literal fortune being shelled out (heck, they must have paid through the moon to take the coverage away from Global) and heck knows what they'll be losing on the Winter Olympics.
On the other hand, maybe they'll reap some nice insurance money from the embers of the CJOH fire... [grin]
Good info on helping people go OTA.
I watched the game over the air on WCAX-DT 3.1 (rf 22).
Ah, the moronic corporate politics of who gets to watch what. This is what the internet is for, removing artificial borders and letting anyone watch anything they want, anywhere, anytime. Culture no longer needs to be monetized.
"This is what the internet is for, removing artificial borders and letting anyone watch anything they want"
Then how do you explain that Canadians can't view videos on Hulu, CBS.com or the likes? Even some videos on YouTube is geoblocked!