U.S. Senator Marco Rubio Wants CRTC to Reverse Super Bowl Ad Ruling

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Following up on the letter to the CRTC and other decision-makers signed by two Liberal MPs, the Canadian Ambassador to the US, David MacNaughton, has received a letter from Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson asking the same thing: to reverse the ban of simultaneous substitution of the 2017 Super Bowl broadcast (via iPolitics).

The letter calls the CRTC’s ruling “unproductive” and interprets it as a “troubling signal”:

“The NFL and its Canadian broadcast partner have a business relationship that is based upon the ability to sell Canadian ads in the Canadian market. Undermining this business relationship is not only unproductive, it also sends a troubling signal about the value Canada places on its largest trading partner, best customer, and close friend,” Rubio and Johnson write.

“For these reasons, we hope that upon review of the harmful precedence this order will set, Canada will reverse this policy.”

Unifor, Canada’s biggest private sector union has launched its own campaign against the ban via new website www.supportcreators.ca, and Unifor president Jerry Dias tweeted, “Add your name to defend Canadian creators and overturn CRTC’s bizarre decision of Super Bowl ads.”

Alongside the two Liberal MPs, Marco Rubio and Ron Johnson, and Unifor, the opposition includes the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. House of Representatives’ Northern Border caucus.

The CRTC’s decision was defended by University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, saying that the criticism is only due to the financial outcome of the ban, and that it is “placing Canadians at the centre of the broadcast system, which the CRTC has tried to do with its decision”.

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