Being as I've always had either Canadian cable or satellite I've never seen the american commercials during the superbowl. I've noticed a lot of the high-def programming including football airs with the American commercials. Is there any way we will get to see American commercials this year on a high-def station?
Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Greg

You usually get the Superbowl in HD with US commercials.

Last year though some providers gave you the Global HD feed instead.

I would search for prior years threads.

crispycat:

Depending on your service provider, the likelihood from now on of getting the direct US feed of the Superbowl without the Canadian rights owner asking the service provider to "simsub" their signal over the US broadcaster's HD channel is becoming extremely rare.

If you are on Rogers (you didn't say) and NOT in the GTA (you didn't say) then you may be okay.

The west coast feed from Seattle was replaced by Gloabal HD last year. Luckliy Detroit HD was still untouched.

Rogers in grand river area (kitchener/brantford,etc) had the global simsub over both American HD channels.

I think Ottawa and London south were the only "safe" areas.

Probably expect the same this year. :(

Yeah, that got me into OTA so now I pick up CBS Buffalo HD OTA and everything will be good.

From: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/Bdt10.htm

What is signal substitution?

Signal substitution occurs when a cable company inserts the signal of a local or regional Canadian TV station on the channel of a more distant station showing the same program at the same time. For substitution to take place, the local or regional TV station has to make a request to the cable company in advance. In addition, the programming on both channels at the time of substitution must be 95% identical.

Signal substitution has been part of the CRTC's cable regulations for many years and applies to larger cable systems with 6,000 or more subscribers.
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I like the 95% identical.

Let's say the Superbowl is 3 hours long. (180 minutes) the max 5% that can be different is 9 minutes. Knowing that there are HD commercials (more and more in HD) and that is part of the Superbowl, I wonder if Global can even sim sub as we would be missing more than 5% of total HD of the Superbowl.

they can and they most certainly will do so. I went the OTA route as well and now I can safely say that I will be watching the original CBS broadcast with full commercials on SuperBowl Sunday.

The first year I had HD and Bell we got simsubbed and now I hear that Videotron is simsubbing in the Montreal area as well, so I would get your hopes up.

If Videotron is SimSubbing in a market that legally should not be, because both Global and CTV do not broadcast HD in this market, then I reckon Rogers will go ahead and do so soon if they're not already.

The actual answer to this question is who knows. The only way we will find out if we get the ads is on SuperBowl Sunday. Expressvu has not been subbing the Global games on CBS or FOX for most of the year, but this has happened before and once playoffs come around they start. Last year, I remember hearing people with OTA even being hit by a Global simsub. Not sure how that could have happened.

My main question/concern is, how can Global/Expressvu even get away with subbing the SuperBowl this year. EVU airs CBS at 1080i both east and west, and Global at 720p. To me that is a difference in quality and two different ways of broadcasting the game. Isn't a simsub suppose to be the same feed for both ends.

If you receive OTA American channel then you will get the full CBS superbowl program........otherwise it will be simsubed with few if any exceptions this year. The commercials are overrated and can be viewed on the internet within hours and on many Canadian and American stations in the days following the superbowl. Try to give football a chance and forget about the commercials as you probably do for every other program that you watch.:D

It should also be clear by now that the arguements against sim-subs do not have any merit except in the mind of the person promoting the arguement. 1080i vs 720p is probably the least convincing of them all. Nothing is going to change......thats the way it is until the regulations are changed. End of story.

I agree that the commercials are overrated. I've seen them from 2002-2005 and thought that all the commercials were terrible. Usually nothing that great out of them. The only good thing is that CBS would offer more HD commercials and summer movie trailers then what Global provides.

The first year I had HD and Bell we got simsubbed and now I hear that Videotron is simsubbing in the Montreal area as well, so I would get your hopes up.

If Videotron is SimSubbing in a market that legally should not be, because both Global and CTV do not broadcast HD in this market, then I reckon Rogers will go ahead and do so soon if they're not already.

Videotron has ceased simsubs as of last Friday. They use to source the signals from Rogers, but have since switched to local OTA US stations.

Also, don't forget that Star Choice doesn't have any HD simsubs at all (with the possible exception of CTV programs in the GTA) and doesn't even carry Global HD.

The rule is that 95% of the program must be identical not including commercials. Simsubs are nothing but a pain seeing as how the providers seem to have trouble performing them correctly.

They're commercials. You can view them on the net the next day, in case you want to prep for watercooler talk.

It should also be clear by now that the arguements against sim-subs do not have any merit except in the mind of the person promoting the arguement. 1080i vs 720p is probably the least convincing of them all.

NO merit???? Lindsay649 you are on something very strong or you work for the CRTC/Canadian TV providers

1) Inferior Video quality
2) Inferior Audio quality
3) Compromised integrity of the beginning of the show (some shows are simsubbed in the middle of the shows introduction while others are after the 1st commercial...it varies)
4) Compromised integrity of the end of the show (just ask anybody that missed out on the last 2 minutes of Grays Anatomy a few weeks ago).
5) Wrong episode airings (Grey's Anatomy season premiere wrong episode... oh, and I don't care that the provider gave the wrong one... that doesn't excuse that only Canadian viewers where exposed to this farce).
6) Entirely skipped shows (this happened with the series "The Shield" on Global when they skipped a "special" 90 minute episode in the middle of a season and then came back with the following episode like if nothing had ever happened... never showing the 90 minute episode to Canadian viewers and expecting them not to notice the break in the story line)

Wake up and smell the coffee: Simsubs offer ABSOLUTELY nothing to Canadian viewers except inferior viewing and annoyances and Canadian commercials of course.

Simsubs are useless and annoying and one major reason why I signed up for US Satellite in the mid-90's.

The Superbowl commercials are a major part of the event. Watching them the next day is like knowing the score of the game before watching it.

Wake up and smell the coffee: Simsubs offer ABSOLUTELY nothing to Canadian viewers except inferior viewing and annoyances and Canadian commercials of course.
Couldn't agree more unreal1080p. Haven't a clue how Lindsay649 could claim that arguments against sim-subs are without merit.

I'm just wondering how many people that watch TV (the general public that most likely doesn't visit forums like this) know about simsubs. I think the majority of people actually believe that CTV and Global create these hit shows that people watch, while obviously in actual fact they all are created and originate on either ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. This ignorance of people's knowledge of simsubbing makes me almost as mad as the simsubbing practice itself!!!!!!!!
When I hear people at work talk about Prison Break being on Global and such, I just want to yell over at them and say it's on FOX!!!! - don't watch Global, especially if you don't want to be succumbed to inferior audio and video transmission in HD.