Canadians Lose U.S. Super Bowl Ads on TV for 2019, Trump Takes Credit for Win

While speaking at a rally in Minnesota, U.S. President Donald Trump revealed that the reason why Canadian football fans are unable to watch the U.S. Super Bowl ads on TV anymore is because he “fixed a problem that the NFL had with Canada” over ads played during the Super Bowl as part of negotiations toward the USMCA deal (via Global News).

The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement–or USMCA–is known as “NAFTA 2.0”, currently a pending trade agreement between the three nations.

As part of USMCA, the Canadian government agreed to remove “simultaneous substitution”, or “simsub”, during the Super Bowl, a practice that allows Canadian ads to be broadcast on American networks when a program is showing in both countries at the same time. The CRTC’s order suspended simsub so that U.S. Super Bowl ads could air in Canada.

Although broadcasters NFL and Bell Media were dismissed when they went to court to have the order overturned, thanks to the USCMA, the order is no more.

President Trump proudly took the credit for making it all happen.

“I heard that the NFL had a big problem with Canada on their advertising, on the commercials, a big, big problem,” he said. “So during the negotiation, I said, ‘You’ve got to fix the NFL problem.’ 

“Took me two minutes, and now the NFL is so happy, it’s all worked out, it’s all worked out.”

“Nobody could do it, nobody could get it done. I did it in two minutes.”

Bell Media told Global in a statement, “It was a positive decision by the federal government that will benefit Canadian content creators, advertisers and our overall broadcasting industry.” The reversal means Bell Media will be able to sell more ads to Canadians during the 2019 Super Bowl, unlike last year when U.S. channels in Canada displayed American ads.

Well, what do you guys think? Sad to see U.S. Super Bowl ads leave Canadian airwaves for 2019?