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Super Bowl Discussions

80K views 472 replies 84 participants last post by  gzink 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I haven't been able to find a recent thread of this issue so I started a new one. Please post in correct forum if there is one.
It was my understanding that the CRTC ruled some time ago that beginning next year, CTV could no longer simsub the American commercials and replace them with Canadian commercials during the Super Bowl. I had always assumed that meant that the BDUs could not substitute the CTV signal on the American feed but CTV could continue airing their own commercials. In other words, the viewer could choose between watching the game either on CTV or the U.S. feed.
Not so, according to John Doyle of the Globe and Mail. Writing in the Gobe, he wrote that the CRTC has told CTV that it had to carry the U.S. commercials as well as the game.
Which interpretation is correct? If Doyle is correct, I can see why CTV along with the NFL is making a court challenge on this ruling.
Does anyone know when the deal between CTV and the NFL expires? That might explain the delay of one year in implementing this decision.
 
#2 ·
CTV can air their own commercials. The BDUs must allow viewers to see the Fox feed in 2017.

U.S. Super Bowl Ads Are Coming To Canadian Screens, And Bell Is Unhappy With 'Arbitrary' Decision

That means that after the new rule comes into effect in 2017, Canadians who want to watch the U.S. ads during the Super Bowl can simply switch over from CTV to Fox, which has the U.S. broadcast rights next year.
CRTC spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said in an email that Canadian commercials will still be available on Canadian channels and there is nothing prohibiting Canadian advertisers from buying time on the U.S. broadcast — although she noted that would be expensive.
Bell... owns the exclusive rights to the NFL championship through 2019
Another link: Super Bowl 50: Last hurrah for Canadian commercials

As noted in the links, very few people really care any more since the ads are available on the internet, sometimes even before the game.
 
#3 ·
very few people really care any more since the ads are available on the internet, sometimes even before the game.
And here they are all online:

All 2016 Super Bowl Commercials In One Place

I've watched them all. In my opinion none of these commercials are million dollar commercials much less 5 million.
 
#4 ·
It's not about the ads for most of us, it is about the shoddy job that canadian networks do with simsubbing on all of their US programming they buy.

From cutting off the last minute of TV shows, coming back late to sports games from commercial breaks, sonetimes taking 5 to 10 minutes before the idiots realize they are still broadcasting over top of the US network signal.

My personal hope is that nobody tunes into the canadian broadcast of the super bowl next year. Let Bell lose money on it, couldn't happen to a better company. After the way theyve fleeced canadians for decades while they had a monopoly, they would deserve it.

I'm streaming in HD from CBS directly from my laptop, just as I also DVR network shows on the time shifting US neywork channels. No simsub is acceptable to me.
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
Superbowl 50

I am very curious if anyone tried to stream the Superbowl from CBS.com. I tried and it said the feed was unavailable and or to try back later. I thought that this year was the year we would get to see the entire superbowl when I learned that was now going to begin in teh 2017 game I thought it a great idea to stream it and maybe get all of the ads as well. I uped my internet speed for the day in preparation. But all I got was try again later. Did anyone get the stream? If not I smell a conspiracy to block the game on the internet by some means to force us to watch those mindless tv ads over and over and over again..
 
#7 ·
The U.S. network buys the rights from the NFL to show the Super Bowl in the U.S. only. That will still be the case in 2017 and the network's web site will still be geo-blocked next year.

The NFL has joined Bell in the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn the CRTC decision, so there's no guarantee that the CRTC ruling will stand. The court reviewed Bell's arguments and granted them leave to appeal once, however the CRTC changed the reasons for their decision so Bell and the NFL refiled their appeal in Dec. 2015. There is a full timeline of the court proceedings at the end of this web page that I found when I was looking for the status of the court case.

Elimination of simsub for the SUPER BOWL - Bell Media
 
#9 ·
The NFL has joined Bell in the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn the CRTC decision, so there's no guarantee that the CRTC ruling will stand.
Given that a ridiculous amount of the adverts last night were for Bell TV and Crave TV bringing in zero net revenue for the Bell shareholders Bell really should stop wasting any more shareholders money on legal fees on this - no matter how flawed the CRTC ruling in law.
 
#8 ·
Streamed it from cbs.com, was great till about halfway through the game. I use un block us DNS switcher.

Then it started to buffer more, so in 4th quarter switched to the cbs station on cable and watched the CTV simsub until they bailed as soon as the game ended. Then it switched back to the CBS broadcast.

Bell should be glad that the CRTC didn't eliminate simsub altogether. It does nothing to protect canadian programming, the only network that actually makes a real effort to air canadian programming is CBC.

All that CTV, Global and City Tv do is re air US programming, they make absolutly no effort create original canadian programs to air in primetime.

Just because people like myself don't complain to the CRTC everytime a simsub is screwed up, doesn't mean there aren't a lot of us out there very unhappy with the current system.

It is mostly a moot point now anyways,most of my friends no longer have either cable or satellite.
 
#10 ·
Bell said last year the value of airtime they used for promotions was $4 million. I'm not sure if this year was more or less. I've seen news reports where CTV unofficially confirmed that the Super Bowl ads sell for between $170,000 and $200,000 for a 30-second ad. Even if Bell doesn't get any money up front for the promo ads, the whole idea of all ads is that they generate future business.

Since Bell is locked in to the Super Bowl contract until 2019, it makes sense for them to go to court to protect their shareholders' money.
 
#12 ·
Even if Bell doesn't get any money up front for the promo ads, the whole idea of all ads is that they generate future business.
That is a possible interpretation but there are others. Bell may be artificially inflating the price of Superbowl ads by using group companies to buy up ad space at artificially high prices. Or, having failed to sell the ad space on a bona fide arms length basis to the entire Canadian economy, Bell may be filling up space rather than running an embarrassing test card revealing they couldn't even sell all their spots.

In any event if buying TV ad space was a guarantee of generating future business then broadcast TV ought not to be in the mess that it is claimed to be in.
 
#11 ·
Not that I like Bell, but I completely understand their position. They made a business decision to purchase NFL rights based on revenue projections, now the government is forcing a rule change on one specific event. Either end simsubbing all together, or don't make specific cases.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bell wins an injunction until the current contract period they have is up.
 
#15 ·
A three-Justice panel of the Federal Court of Appeal heard the case (A-231-15) on June 20, 2016. As is typical with these complex cases, the Justices will review the written presentations, the oral arguments (which took over 7 hours), the applicable law and legal precedents before issuing a decision. I don't think we will hear anything before September.
 
#20 ·
Unfortunately, Inglewood, the way I see it, Bell was the ORIGINAL perpetrator of discriminatory practices on this matter, and Canwest before them. Therefore, on this issue, I've absolutely no sympathy for their position on the matter.

I'm happy that the CRTC today told Bell Media and CTV/TSN where to stick it with this order. Instead of whining and complaining over having one of their toys taken from them, Bell should be playing to it's core strengths as a company, and cashing in on them(I've no specific examples to type here on that, so I won't).

And I don't see this issue being dragged through the courts for years. And it shouldn't be. Bell needs to grow up, and start leaving certain things alone.

Adjust or die. That's the new paradigm for Canadian broadcasting. And that's something Bell, Rogers, et al should not control for their own purposes.

The above may seem harsh, but I see it as a dousing in cold water over the incumbents romanticism with the past.

=P
 
#21 ·
When in comes down to it, its all about rights, as in copyright rights? The thing is be it Bell Rogers Shaw or who have you pay for the rights to show this program in Canada by sell ad space to other agencies for their product.

If the arguement is I should be able to watch this program on a US net without substion then who ever shoews it in Canada(Canadian Broadcaster) then shouldn't have to pay one cent to the US holder for those rights.

The same then could be said about music or movies/TV Shows, consumers can get via tv or internet should be able to get that for free and the artis or actor performs shouldn't get one cent from the consumer.

Like I said it all comes down to copyrights and $$$
 
#23 ·
The Canadian network would still make money and show their own commercials. It just won't be simsubbed on the US channel. Also, the Canadian NFL deal is chump change compared to the other revenues the NFL gets, so not getting a Canadian NFL deal is not a big deal for the NFL. The Canadian channel would be the own missing out of the money as the only other shows on during the Super Bowl are reruns.
 
#24 ·
Regardless of what the court decides, Bell has signed a contract to carry and pay for the Super Bowl until 2019, so that won't change before then. The Super Bowl is part of a larger NFL agreement, so assuming the CRTC wins in the courts, after 2019 the Super Bowl could be negotiated for a lower price or it could be dropped entirely if the NFL wasn't able to agree to a suitable price with a Canadian provider. Viewership would be much lower on the Canadian channel, so ad rates would also have to be much lower.

The NFL definitely takes this case very seriously, since it could undermine their copyright and licence agreements for all their international sales. Fun fact: they brought 5 lawyers to the Federal Court of Appeal, while Bell had 2, the government had 3 and TELUS had 2. The NFL had filed their own appeal in February and the court had consolidated the cases, making Bell the appellant and the NFL an intervener.
 
#25 ·
My point is that the CRTC shouldn't cherry pick which programs can have sim-subbing, and those that can't.

Either they eliminate sim-subbing altogether, or not at all.

As a rights holder, it minimizes the profit that can be made on rights that they purchased if sim-subbing is removed, it also reduces what they would pay the content provider for that content.

The CRTC is picking a fight with some deep pockets with the NFL and Bell - should be interesting to see how things pan out.
 
#27 ·
The rules for simsubs are that it must not be an inferior version of the broadcast. Is there anyone outside of Bell arguing that the Canadian Superbowl broadcast is not inferior to the American one? I can see the 5000th rerun of the ad for the local car dealership any other time of the year.

When you look at it that way, the CRTC's decision is entirely consistent.
 
#28 ·
Bell is gonna have a tough time finding support from average canadians.

The same people they have been screwing over for decades with overpriced home Phone Service, Overpriced Satellite TV and the latest Overpriced Celluar phone plans.

I'm sure most people who've dealt with rogers feels the same way.

No sympathy from me personally. Got ripped off for years by bell and finally got them to quit calling me to sign up, I told the lady on the phone" I wouldn't sign up for any of your services even if you offered them for free". She didn't know what to say and just said have a nice day and hung up. LOL

6 months since and have never gotten a call from them since.

The big media conglomerates in this country can rot as far as I'm concerned, they've had a monopoly for way too long in this country

Cory
 
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