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NFL, Broadcaster Notch Canadian Court Victory on Super Bowl Ads

NFL, Broadcaster Notch Canadian Court Victory on Super Bowl Ads

(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s Supreme Court quashed a decision by the country’s broadcast regulator that allows Canadians to see American Super Bowl ads, in a win for BCE Inc.’s Bell Media unit and the National Football League.

The court ruled the Canada Radio-television Telecommunications Commission didn’t have the authority to impose the exemption for the Super Bowl under national broadcasting rules that effectively have kept the commercials off Canadian television. Bell has an exclusive license with the NFL to broadcast the Super Bowl in Canada, and the two argued the ruling hurt their ability to sell Canadian advertisement for the show. The NFL was part of the legal challenge.

The CRTC ruling, finalized in 2016, ever-so-slightly loosened 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 then-CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais announced the change -- which applies only to the Super Bowl -- he called the existing system an “addiction” broadcasters backed at the expense of viewers.

--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.

To contact the reporter on this story: Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Stephen Wicary, Chris Fournier

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