This is one of those stories that is very hard to tell. Because of all the complexity and twists and turns, it may be best told in flashback like one of those movies that starts off in the near-present moment, when the main character is about to do something climactic and you then wonder how she/he got into the on-screen predicament you are witnessing in the first place. And then suddenly the screen fades to a new scene that says something like “15 years earlier…” And you don’t get back to where you were at the beginning of the movie until right near the end where you (mostly) find out how it all turns out*…

So let’s follow that structure.

{Click on the the screen-grabs to get to the source material.}

Opening Scene (Just two months ago)

Fadeout…”41 Years Earlier…”

CRTC policy of Simultaneous Substitution of U.S. television signals by equivalent Canadian signals upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada…

The Simultaneous Substitution Regulations can be found below. The actual mechanics are in S. 3.(1) & 4.(1)…

Some useful historical context here…

Bell and the CRTC already had a “complicated” relationship…

See the story below about Bell’s firing of one of it’s executives for trying to interfere with CTV newsroom coverage of a CRTC decision…

…and the CRTC’s rather pointed criticism of Bell shortly before…

And then the plot thickened…

The CRTC’s (17 page) decision removing authorization for simultaneous substitution in respect of the Super Bowl under can be found below…What is perhaps most critical is that the CRTC clearly felt they were responding to and being responsive to the Canadian public.

Some thought this was exactly the right approach…

However Bell, the owners of CTV & TSN who held the Canadian rights to the broadcast of the Super Bowl (because they paid for them), were not happy. So they tried (unsuccessfully) to do something about it….

Decision here…

And the CRTC told Canadians how to watch the Super Bowl…

And a last desperate (and also unsuccessful) attempt for a stay of proceedings by Bell…

And a dire warning…

Then came the (first) real climactic moment…

No…not the game (that was good too). But what were Canadians going to do Watch the U.S. feed with U.S. Super Bowl commercials or CTV with…well…”other” commercials…

Post-mortems inferring what choices Canadians made while watching the Super Bowl last year can be found here…

And Bell marched on…

And then the colossal twist…(or so it seems)…

And now go back to the top story at the beginning of the tale…

Any more twists and turns to come (other than a pending SCC appeal) before the Los Angeles Rams beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII on February 3, 2019?

__________________________

This rather odd issue is useful in identifying and focussing us on some of the orthodoxies and traditional tensions in our national broadcasting and communications – particularly questions of culture, profit, and censorship. The question itself may be most useful as a kind of Rorschach test on which we can all project our pre-existing perceptions and biases.

So, U.S. Super Bowl Commercials on Canadian TV – Yes, No or Who Cares?

More in class tomorrow…

Jon

*For those of you perceptive souls wondering “what movie did he watch this weekend with that structure?” the answer is “Love Rosie”