CRTC rejects Bell’s ask to simsub Canadian Super Bowl ads in 2019

The CRTC has rejected a request by BCE Inc. to bring back simultaneous commercial substitution in time for next year’s Super Bowl, pending a ruling by Canada’s top court and implementation of the new free trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico. In a letter this week sent to Bell Media’s vice-president of regulatory affairs, content and distribution, Kevin Goldstein, CRTC secretary general Claude Doucet said the commission is rejecting Bell’s application to temporarily suspend the commission’s order that bans commercial substitution, allowing the broadcaster to air Canadian advertisements during next year’s Super Bowl. “It would be inappropriate for the commission to consider the matter at this time,” Doucet’s letter said. Bell had submitted a Part 1 application to the CRTC requesting it rescind its orders on simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl LIII, given that a new trilateral free trade deal overturns the CRTC’s controversial ruling. The Liberal government announced in October it reached a new free trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The new agreement, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), will end the CRTC’s policy banning commercial substitutions during the Super Bowl – something President Donald Trump claimed as a political victory. The National Football League (NFL) had pressed the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to make the substitution issue part of the negotiations. The CRTC said because the USMCA hasn’t been ratified yet, and because its ruling on Super Bowl commercial substitutions will be reviewed by the Supreme Court next month, overturning its ruling now would be “inappropriate” and “disrespectful” to the process of reviewing and appealing CRTC decisions. “It is the commission’s view that this concern is outweighed by the importance of the commission’s deference to and support of the Canadian judicial framework,” the letter said. Last month, CRTC chairman Ian Scott told a Senate committee that after the USMCA is ratified, the government will still need to amend the Broadcasting Act to direct the regulator to end the substitution ban because “at the moment, they don’t actually have a mechanism to tell the arm’s-length CRTC to do that.” The CRTC decision that prohibits substituting the glitzy American Super Bowl ads with Canadians ones was quickly disputed by Bell, which appealed the decision at the Federal Court of Appeal. After the court upheld the CRTC’s decision, Bell and the NFL appealed it to the Supreme Court. Bell previously said it lost some $11 million from not airing Canadian ads during the 2017 Super Bowl. The next Super Bowl airs February 3, 2019.

CRTC rejects Bell’s ask to simsub Canadian Super Bowl ads in 2019

Brief | November 9, 2018

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CRTC rejects Bell’s ask to simsub Canadian Super Bowl ads in 2019

Brief | November 9, 2018

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