For the 2023 Super Bowl, Canadians will not be able to watch U.S. ads in Canada, as streaming TV rights for the big game belong to Bell Media and its channels CTV, TSN and RDS.
Bell Media won a Supreme Court ruling in 2019 that overturned a CRTC decision to allow American Super Bowl ads in Canada. Since then, Canadian ads have been shown on TV broadcasts in Canada from Bell Media, as the latter is able to charge a premium for ads to be shown nationally.
If you want to watch U.S. Super Bowl ads in Canada, you won’t be able to do so during the TV broadcast, but you can check out the ads online. Most are usually released before the big game anyways.
Our original story from 2019 about watching U.S. Super Bowl ads is below:
Within the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement—known as USMCA—the Canadian government agreed to overturn a ruling on simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. This means American ads won’t be able to play on Canadian networks during the big game anymore.
But the USMCA hasn’t been ratified yet, so the ongoing battle between the CRTC and Bell Media continues. Bell Media owns the distribution rights to the Super Bowl in Canada.
Prior to 2016, during the Super Bowl, instead of seeing blockbuster American ads in Canada, Bell Media was able to “sim-sub” Canadian ads instead, benefitting the latter’s advertising network.
Watching #SBLIII this Sunday? @CTV, @TSN_Sports and @RDSca will be airing Canadian ads. @CBS will be running the American ads. https://t.co/OUV1jagL4V pic.twitter.com/0SKAivBmZr
— CRTCeng (@CRTCeng) February 1, 2019
According to the CRTC, to watch American ads during the 2019 Super Bowl, all you need to do is tune into CBS to see the big-budget ads during the game.
To view Canadian Super Bowl ads, tune into Bell Media’s CTV, RDS or TSN.
The average cost of a 30-second American TV ad during the 2019 Super Bowl is pegged at 5.25 million USD, or $6.8 million Canadian dollars.
Back in 2017, reports claimed Bell Media was able to charge $150,000 to $190,000 per 30-second TV ad during the Super Bowl on the Canadian broadcast, with even higher prices during the finale.
