Will I be able to see the Super Bowl with U.S. commercials?
In the weeks before the Super Bowl every year, Digital Home is deluged with readers asking whether they will be able to watch the big game with U.S. commercials.
Unfortunately, thanks to the CRTC mandated practice of signal substitution or sim-subbing, the vast majority of Canadian cable and satellite television subscribers will only see Canadian commercials.
The balance of this article highlights what Canadian Over-the-Air (OTA) viewers, standard and high definition cable customers, Bell TV customers, Shaw Direct customers can expect to see on Super Bowl Sunday.
We say “expect to see” because individual cable and satellite companies may not apply the signal substitution rules correctly. In the past, some cable operators simulcast the game when they should not have and some cable operators did not simulcast when they should have. Last year most cable and satellite operators applied the rules correctly after they were rebuked in December 2008 by the CRTC in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-358.
Over-the-Air Television (OTA) Viewers
If you are one of the minority of Canadians who can receive and view the CBS analog or digital television signal over-the-air (OTA) then congratulations because you will be watching the game complete with American commercials.
Standard Definition Cable Customers
Generally speaking, if you are a standard definition (SD) cable television subscriber and your cable company is located within the Grade B contour of any CTV analog station in Canada then your Super Bowl broadcast will be simulcast.
Simply speaking the “Grade B contour” is the geographic area in which it is predicted that a consumer with an outdoor antenna would be able to receive a local stations analog broadcast. The size of the area depends on the station but for most cities, the contour map can extend out 75 to 100 kilometres from the transmitter and cover thousands of square kilometres.
Practically speaking, since most English speaking Canadians live within the Grade B contour of a CTV analog signal, it means that most Canadians watching standard definition television outside of Quebec will see the Super Bowl with Canadian commercials.
In Quebec, CTV has only one analog station in Montreal therefore SD cable subscribers outside the Montreal area should see the American version of the game.
High Definition Cable Customers
Because CTV has high definition (HD) OTA transmitters in Canada’s major English language urban centres: Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver, it means that most HD cable customers will be watching a CTV simulcast of the big game.
HD cable subscribers outside of those cities respective grade B contours should be able to watch the CBS-HD version of the game complete with U.S. commercials.
Bell TV Customers
In “Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-358 – Regarding Simsub of Super Bowl” the CRTC mandated that Bell TV must simulcast the CTV simulcast version of the Super Bowl to all standard definition and high definition Bell TV customers regardless of where they live in the country.
Shaw Direct (Star Choice) Customers
Thanks to special technology implemented by Shaw Direct, the direct-to-home satellite television distributor has the ability to determine which customers should receive the simulcast or U.S. version of the game based on their postal code.
Shaw Direct customers who will see US commercials include standard definition customers whose postal code is outside the Grade B contour of any CTV digital transmitter in Canada and high definition customers whose postal code is outside the Grade B contour of CTV’s high definition transmitter in Toronto.
Discuss in Digital Home’s Canadian Sports Progamming forum.
Updated: This article was updated to remove Ottawa from the list of cities with CTV digital stations. CTV HD in Ottawa is only available on cable and satellite and has not begun broadcasting OTA. Digital Home apologizes for the error.
I still don’t understand why Bell has to simsub nationally via the uplink. It’s time they upgraded their equipment to do it properly geographically.
We have had DirecTV for years and I will never give it up. The CRTC’s simsub policies drive me bananas and waiting for 3 months for new shows that everyone is enjoying on the real HBO is just wrong.
Canadian TV is for the dogs and the greedy networks looking for handouts is enough to make you sick.
Why don’t Bell simply put it as a Payperview event?
at least I’ll have an option and my Videotron neighbours will stop laughing at me…
Videotron customers in Gatineau and Clarence Rockland will be able to watch the American feed of the Super Bowl in HD, as reported by Gord MacDougall of 580 CFRA.
canadian tv is so bad i just dont get it thats why i have direct tv
I have Shaw Direct and I had 2 Tv’s going for the Superbowl last night. One of my receivers was showing the American feed and the other was showing the Canadian feed. Both were on the same channel. I called Shaw Direct to ask why and they said they must have missed my receiver. The CRTC makes them substitute the american commercials for Canadian ones. Shaw does it based on postal code. They somehow missed the one receiever’s ID when they were switching it.