Now what is wishful thinking by Canadian viewers has erupted into a giant court battle between the National Football League and Canadian telecommunications giant BCE Inc., whose Bell Media unit owns the broadcast rights to the Super Bowl, who are joined Canadian lawmakers, actors and unions in a battle is underway, with the NFL essentially suing to keep its U.S. ads out of Canada. Stephen Waddell, executive director of ACTRA, a union representing 23,000 Canadian performers that fears the move could ultimately trigger the end of a system the domestic arts sector relies on. The Canada Radio-television Telecommunications Commission ruling, finalized in 2016, slightly loosens the grip of simultaneous substitution, or simsub. The practice began in the 1970s so broadcasters who paid for rights to U.S. shows wouldn’t see their advertising base eroded by viewers watching American feeds readily available to viewers near the border. When CRTC Chairman, Jean-Pierre Blais announced the change which applies only to the Super Bowl, calling the existing system an “addiction” broadcasters backed at the expense of viewers. However, it must be said that a key pillar of Canada’s TV and film industry, along with rules requiring broadcasters to air a certain amount of made-in-Canada content is in effect to fund the production of Canadian shows. But times are changing fast with online streaming services threatening to make Canadian-content rules irrelevant even without any government regulatory change. The migration from traditional cable to online content is already eating into ad revenue for Bell and its cable TV competitors, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. There are no signs that in power Liberals will intervene at this time, but there is still hope U.S. Super Bowl ads will be for blocked from Canadian viewers forcing them to bring them up on YouTube for another year. The ruling is a test case for how Canadian broadcast regulations will evolve in an era of Netflix.
By Jamie Barrie T he Super Bowl is known as one of the largest sporting events of the year for viewers and advertisers alike. Advertisers are looking at the key demographic to their target customers and build awareness to their products and services. For viewers, the commercials are as much about The Super Bowl as the game itself, viewers eagerly waiting for the kick off and for the ads to start, well that is if you are south of the border. For Canadian viewers, NFL’s television’s premiere event is much different as most U.S. Advertising for the game is blocked and replaced by local ads instead. This year could be different as Budweiser Super Bowl Commercials could be showing up on Canadian screens during the big game and a political and legal faceoff that would be bigger than any match up on the field is building up in the court room.
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FEBRUARY 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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