The Gazette’s Denise Duguay reports that Videotron did not, in fact, substitute its NBC HD channel for CTV HD as CTV’s press release suggested it would, meaning she was one of the few Canadians to watch NBC’s Super Bowl commercials without having to hook up an antenna.
Of course, for those who want to see them, they’re all over the place online: Just for Laughs, Spike, NFL, FanHouse, YouTube, MySpace. Some include so-called “banned ads” and other attention-grabbers.
Dominic Arpin provides some of his favourite ads. But really, they all suck.
Oh, and that was a good game today, even if I could pay only half attention to it.
Just to let you know that KING 5 TV, the NBC affiliate out of Seattle, was also, for the first time, sim-subbed on Videotron’s time-shifting package (which we pay extra for), for the entire duration of Sunday’s Super Bowl coverage. What really pisses me off is that Montreal’s “Cable Experience” leader chose CTV Vancouver as the replacement channel, thereby negating the actual spirit of the CRTC’s signal substitution bylaw i.e: to allow not only national Canadian advertisers to show their wares, but also local merchants to shill their products and services! Therefore, we were not only shut out from watching the U.S. commercials, but also ads for Montreal businesses (not all advertising was national). Well, at least I now have some idea of who offers what, the next time I visit Stanley Park! Merely another Videotron “moment” (hello Peachtree and TSN 2) to exasperate and frustrate local sports fans.