Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
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January 28, 2008
Why substitute Canadian for American advertising during the Super Bowl?
I'm watching the Super Bowl so why don't I get to see the American ads?
In many cases, the ads for a given product aired in Canada and in the U.S. are the same. Reasons for those that aren't being aired in Canada, include: the American advertisers not purchasing commercial air-time from Canadian stations who have purchased the rights to air the Super Bowl; and the American products advertised are not available for purchase in Canada.
What is signal substitution?
Signal substitution most often involves substituting a Canadian signal for an American one. As a result, the viewer will see the program in its entirety but from a Canadian source.
During the Super Bowl, for example, Canadian broadcasters sell advertising time to be included in the Canadian feed of the program and replace the ads Americans see at home. This permits Canadian stations that buy the exclusive rights to air the Super Bowl in Canada, to benefit from the sale of commercial advertising during the airing of the program.
Substitution of HD programs
Simultaneous substitution should not interfere with a viewer's ability to see the best quality programs available. It is the Commission's policy that a signal of a better quality should not be replaced with a lesser quality signal. This means that the signal of a non-Canadian broadcaster should only be replaced with that of a Canadian broadcaster where the Canadian broadcaster's signal is of the same or better quality than the non-Canadian one.
Why do it?
Signal substitution is done to bring millions of advertising dollars back into the Canadian broadcasting system. Advertising revenues are also what enable Canadian broadcasters to bring you programming such as the Super Bowl.
The CRTC has a duty, under the Broadcasting Act, to foster a strong and financially viable domestic industry. When broadcasters buy programs from American and Canadian producers or networks, they pay for exclusive distribution rights in their home markets. The simultaneous substitution regulation, set out in the CRTC's Cable Regulations, is designed to protect those rights. These regulations permit Canadian broadcasters who purchase American programming, to use signal substitution as a means to earn advertising dollars.
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Date Modified: 2008-01-28
