MONTREAL — As Bell Canada continues its appeal of the CRTC’s simultaneous substitution (simsub) ban for Super Bowl games, its chorus of supporters is growing even louder.
In a press release issued August 1, The National Football League, national union Unifor, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) and the Canadian Media Directors’ Council (CMDC) all reaffirmed their support of Bell’s new application to the CRTC to suspend its simsub ban for Super Bowl LII in 2018 and permanently rescind the ban going forward.
As the new NFL season approaches, Bell is renewing its appeal of the CRTC’s decision to ban the simsub broadcast of all Super Bowl games. The CRTC’s original simsub decision came in 2015 as part of the Let’s Talk TV proceedings, but it didn’t take effect until the Commission issued a distribution order in August 2016. Bell has already filed several appeals, the previous one being in December 2016 prior to the broadcast of Super Bowl LI in February 2017.
“There are no benefits to Canadians when our broadcast regulator favours U.S. advertising, but there have been significant negative economic and cultural impacts in our country resulting directly from the CRTC’s decision,” Mirko Bibic, Bell’s chief legal and regulatory officer and executive vice-president of corporate development, said in the press release. “The damage is being felt across the Canadian creative, cultural and broadcasting communities, including drastic reductions in Super Bowl audiences and revenues at CTV. The reality of the impact is reflected in calls from a wide spectrum of Canadian organizations and the NFL itself to lift the simsub ban.”
As a result of the CRTC’s simsub ban for Super Bowl LI in 2017, Bell Media networks lost 40% of their Super Bowl audience while advertising revenues dropped by $11 million, according to Bell’s press release. Citing a new study by Communic@tions Management Inc., Bell said this new research confirms the broader impact on creators, broadcasters and Canadian businesses after just a single year of the CRTC’s Super Bowl simsub ban.
The company told Cartt.ca in an email that it renewed its push with the Regulator because it does not want to wait until the Federal Court hears the case. The company expects the court to set a date for sometime in the fall, but it can't realistically wait that long. "Ad sales for the NFL regular season, playoffs, and Super Bowl have already started. We need to obtain a decision from the CRTC well in advance of the Super Bowl broadcast in order to properly sell inventory," a spokesperson told Cartt.ca.
According to the CMI study’s findings, the simsub ban has already cost the overall Canadian economy approximately $158 million. The study found that Canadian businesses have been driven to spend their advertising dollars with U.S. border television stations in an attempt to reach Canadian viewers, transferring that revenue to the U.S. economy while at the same time undermining government tax policy, Bell said. Based on revenue impacts, the Canadian creative community has been deprived of $3.3 million in direct funding and $4 million in promotional time for homegrown content, Bell argued.
David Thomson, NFL Canada’s managing director, is quoted in the press release as saying the CRTC’s decision to single out the Super Bowl for disparate treatment is “arbitrary” and should be reversed.
“Not only does it undermine the value of our programming, it also undermines Canadian content creators, and, ultimately, the Canadian economy. We’re pleased to join with our partners at Bell Media as well as with others in the business, labour, cultural and creative communities to ask the CRTC to restore rules of the road that promote fairness and growth in Canada,” Thomson said.
“The original CRTC decision was a foolish one,” said Unifor national president Jerry Dias, speaking for 12,000 Canadian journalists and media workers. “Thirty cents of every advertising dollar earned by CTV on the Super Bowl goes directly into making new Canadian TV content, including local news. Allowing American border stations to grab those ad dollars after CTV has paid top dollar for the game’s Canadian distribution rights is beyond belief.”
Executives from ACTRA, ACA and CMDC also voiced their support for Bell Canada in its appeal of the simsub ban.
“Simultaneous substitution has been a cornerstone policy supporting Canada’s film and television sector for many decades. The CRTC’s decision to exempt the Super Bowl broadcast undermined that foundation and put thousands of Canadian performers, and the stories they tell, at risk. Now that some of our worst fears about the impact have been confirmed we hope the Commission will revisit this damaging decision,” said Stephen Waddell, national executive director, ACTRA.
Ron Lund, president and CEO of ACA, added: “Simultaneous substitution not only protects the program rights negotiated and acquired by Canadian broadcasters, it also gives our advertiser member companies across the country the opportunity to reach Canadian consumers with advertising that is relevant to them. Such marketing opportunities are essential for many businesses to grow their sales and build their companies, in turn creating jobs and providing fuel to grow a robust and productive economy.”
“What is the fuss over one program out of 52 weeks of television?” asked Janet Callaghan, president of the CMDC. “It is because Super Bowl delivers a huge audience which is irreplaceable. Super Bowl is a live program event with a high entertainment factor, engaging families and friends to view together. This audience can be monetized because the almost 8 million 2017 viewers are 100% Canadian despite the origin of the program, which begs the question as to why the CRTC made a ruling which does not appear to be evidence based on stable consumer data and which returns no financial benefit to the Canadian economy.”
In its press announcement, Bell concluded by saying, if the simsub ban is lifted, it would produce a special broadcast of U.S. Super Bowl commercials airing on game day and make it available free of charge to all Canadian broadcast distributors to offer as a video-on-demand service, accompanied by a promotional campaign to ensure more Canadians know they can access the U.S. commercials in advance of the game.
What remains to be seen is if the new leadership at the CRTC will reconsider the Commission’s previous position and decide to reverse the prior call on the field.
