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Canadians Want American Super Bowl Ads


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Is it the American market ads, which are not available from Canadian distribution, or the Superbowl game itself? No matter, sales of OTA antennas are spiking with sales of HD televisions just prior to the NFL's "Superbowl" television broadcast. Enjoy the game Canada !

Canadians buying TV antennas to watch Super Bowl ads

Canadians close to border towns are scrambling to find over-the-air TV antennas and rabbit ears in time for the Super Bowl.

Football fans, it seems, are just as excited about the highly-anticipated advertisements as they are about the outcome between Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers.

Very few of the U.S. ads, which companies spend millions of dollars to produce, air on Canadian cable or satellite broadcasts of the game.

Talent fees, rights issues and even products differ between the U.S. and Canada. It all makes it more difficult for ads to air north of the border.

The only way to get them free, over the air, is if a Canadian resident lives within reach of a U.S. broadcast. In Windsor, Ont., right across from Detroit, dealers and installers are getting almost daily — sometimes panicked — requests for the receivers.

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$20 for an otherwise useless antenna just to watch commercials you can see online the next day? Seems like a waste of money. Some of the ads will be shown in Canada too.

I've already seen the VW ad that really sensitive/ignorant people think is racist because it has a white person speaking Jamaican.

There was a show on CBS yesterday highlighting some of the best Super Bowl ads in history. They previewed a few of the ads too. The Toyota ad with the hottie from Big Bang Theory looks funny. The Budweiser Clydesdale ad looks awesome as usual.

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CBC reader comments indicated that a good OTA antenna is good to have year round in border cities, as the HD signal is less compressed. I have cable and web streaming, but also keep the OTA option as a backup. OTA also provides several sub-channels not available on cable.

But only good for Network broadcasting. The people who use antennas probably don't pay for cable TV and get much of their content online (which isn't very good quality)

Most good TV comes on Premium Cable channels now anyway.

Buying an antenna just to watch commercials seems silly.

Edited by Boges
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At least if you stay home you don't have to worry about the TSA patting you down as you enter the stadium.

And for that car commercial, the language is Patois, not Jamaican.

Patois is what the Jamaican accent in generally referred to. Other accents can be referred to as Patois as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patois

Patois (/ˈpætwɑː/, pl. /ˈpætwɑːz/)[1][2] is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms ofcant. Class distinctions are embedded in the term, drawn between those who speak patois and those who speak the standard or dominant language used in literature and public speaking, i.e., the "acrolect".
Edited by Boges
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Guest American Woman

At least if you stay home you don't have to worry about the TSA patting you down as you enter the stadium.

That's not something most people "worry" about - any more than they "worry" about going through security for, say, entering the Eiffel Tower.

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Apparently the SuperBowl draws a large audience in Canada, American ads or not:

The Super Bowl may be the most popular sporting event in the U.S., but it’s also one of the most watched TV shows in Canada, bigger than the Grey Cup, Academy Awards and Stanley Cup.

“The Super Bowl is an unparalleled spectacle of pro sports and pop culture that transcends all genres and translates into one of the biggest days on television,” Phil King, CTV’s president of sports and executive vice-president of programming, said in a statement.

But, as in other years, the Canadian ads will mostly be overshadowed by their glitzier U.S. counterparts, industry observers said.

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It looks like Canada has access to all major American broadcast networks and some "superstations" with the CRTC's blessing. I don't know how Canadian cable or satellite operators could substitute out all the American commercials (live), but they could try with timing feeds I guess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_stations_available_in_Canada

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Presumably that's how they do it, .....

So the Canadian cable operator would have sold advertising to the local market and would cut away from the U.S. feed in real time ? Is this substitution seamless to the Canadian audience or does it step on some programming because of timing issues ? And how does the Canadian audience get shielded from sponsor content in the actual broadcast (voice overs, logos, screen crawls, etc.)? It must be awkward at times.

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I dont exactly know how they do it, but they dont cut out during the game. There must be signal that activates the local video feed. Much of this is now computerized, so the switch over is seamless, and the local computer starts playin the 30 second commercials. Some systems are on time delay, what we see isn't really live for a number of reasons. That could also help correct for the commercial breaks.

I've noted that most channels now show commercials at the same time. It seems like they are synchronized. I used to be one of those guys who channel flipped during commercials, watching other stuff until my show came back on. Can't do that any more, all channels show commercials at the same time.

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I've noted that most channels now show commercials at the same time. It seems like they are synchronized. I used to be one of those guys who channel flipped during commercials, watching other stuff until my show came back on. Can't do that any more, all channels show commercials at the same time.

OK, but an NFL game does not have fixed advertising cut away times once the game starts, because they don't know exactly when the breaks will come. The usual two minute ad time is standard, with a network promo usually the last bumper advertising before going back to the program. I agree that 30 second sync blocks seem to be standard.

So if I am sitting in Pickle Lake, Ontario watching the Super Bowl live, will I see a mix of local and national Canadian ads as substitution or will an occasional American market commercial sneak through ?

Edited by bush_cheney2004
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Guest Derek L

OK, but an NFL game does not have fixed advertising cut away times once the game starts, because they don't know exactly when the breaks will come. The usual two minute ad time is standard, with a network promo usually the last bumper advertising before going back to the program. I agree that 30 second sync blocks seem to be standard.

So if I am sitting in Pickle Lake, Ontario watching the Super Bowl live, will I see a mix of local and national Canadian ads as substitution or will an occasional American market commercial sneak through ?

This is the cross we bear...........Unless you have a dish.

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Canadian commercials are only shown on programming that a Canadian broadcaster (in this case CTV) buys the rights to show something in Canada. The same will be the case for the Oscars.

Most of the time you get the American advertising.

When I watch College football on CBS or ABC I get the US ads.

Edited by Boges
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Is there any blocked Canadian programming that Americans would rush out to buy OTA antennas for ? How about soft-core porn from Quebec ? biggrin.png

The Olympics garner lots of eyes (relatively speaking) from border cities in the US wanting balanced coverage and little time delays and other dumb stuff NBC tries to piss off viewers. Witht eh CBC gettin the Oly's back it should continue.

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So the Canadian cable operator would have sold advertising to the local market and would cut away from the U.S. feed in real time ?

Yes, has been this way for ages.

Is this substitution seamless to the Canadian audience or does it step on some programming because of timing issues ?

Pretty well seamless but once in awhile a few seconds might slip through

And how does the Canadian audience get shielded from sponsor content in the actual broadcast (voice overs, logos, screen crawls, etc.)? It must be awkward at times.

Not at all, its a blank feed for the most part originating from the source.

People in Washington don't watch Phils CArpets commercials forAtlanta

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....Most of the time you get the American advertising.

When I watch College football on CBS or ABC I get the US ads.

OK...so this would lead to Canadian audiences seeing American local, regional, and national advertising on a regular basis, including political ads during campaign season. Maybe Canadians just get use to this window view of the U.S., but it would drive me nuts ! And I gotta believe that some people in Quebec want nothing to do with such nonsense.

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OK...so this would lead to Canadian audiences seeing American local, regional, and national advertising on a regular basis, including political ads during campaign season. Maybe Canadians just get use to this window view of the U.S., but it would drive me nuts ! And I gotta believe that some people in Quebec want nothing to do with such nonsense.

The rule is ...if it is being broadcast in the two countries at the same time, then all feeds and channels shown in Canada sub in their own commercials. When it is not done, ie College football, then the US ads will sometimes run, but those types of programming get lousy low ratings.

Political ads are almost non-existing since so much of what we watch is simulcast. Late late night stuff had the political stuff.

Doesnt drive you nuts, one is born into this and pre-conditioned from the moment you start to watch TV

Edited by guyser
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