Simultaneous substitution

For the US equivalent to this practice, see Syndication exclusivity.

The View as it appears on ABC in Canada before and after simultaneous substitution is implemented as requested by CTV. Note the appearance of CTV's bug in the lower right corner rather than ABC's.

Simultaneous substitution (known also as simsubbing or signal substitution^[1]) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or non-local television station with the signal of a local or regional over-the-air station when the two stations are airing identical programming simultaneously. Although the policy officially applies to any foreign signal, in actual practice the signals are virtually always of American origin.

The practice has become controversial because its implementation will often pre-empt the signals of US networks available through Canadian cable and satellite providers such as those of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.^[2] Simsubbing usually receives nationwide attention in the days leading up to the annual broadcast of the Super Bowl football championship, where the famed high-profile US Super Bowl commercials are virtually blocked from viewing on Canadian television.^[2] The Canadian network broadcasting the championship is eligible to request that the US broadcaster's signal be replaced in Canada with its own signal, so long as both broadcasts are aired simultaneously.

The CRTC first commissioned simsubbing in 1972, and it is sometimes erroneously called simulcasting, the name of a practice different from simultaneous substitution in that there is no signal replacement.^[3][4] According to the CRTC, the practice of simultaneous substitution is necessary "to protect the rights of broadcasters, to enable TV stations to draw enough advertising dollars and to keep advertising dollars in the Canadian market".^[1] Canadian broadcast television networks, who must request each and every substitution on an individual basis, have been criticized for exploiting the regulation and not investing enough money into Canadian content.^[5][6]

History

Through the 1950s, CBC was the monopoly broadcaster in Canada. In 1960, the Board of Broadcast Governors, predecessor to the CRTC, granted licenses for commercial stations in order to provide an alternative to CBC. These broadcasters began operating in 1961, and acquired Canadian rights to many US programs.^[3]

As approximately 30 percent of the Canadian population — those who were close enough to the US border — had access to over-the-air (OTA) broadcast signals from both Canadian and US networks, they could choose to watch American programs on either a Canadian or US network.^[3] Many of these Canadians chose to watch the US network (i.e. CBS, ABC or NBC) rather than the Canadian network feed. Consequently, many Canadian broadcasters began airing their US-purchased programs in advance of the US broadcaster to attract more viewers and earn money from Canadian commercials, and some Canadian businesses who advertised on the Canadian stations also bought airtime on the American stations receivable in the same areas.

As cable television began to proliferate across Canada in the early 1970s, viewers far from the US border were beginning to obtain access to US signals that were once unobtainable. In 1972, as response to pressure from Canadian broadcasters, the CRTC introduced the simultaneous substitution regulation as a method to circumvent diminution of the value of Canadian networks' exclusive broadcast rights to US programs.^[3] Through the 1990s, as satellite television services gained popularity and were eventually licensed in Canada, simultaneous substitution became a requirement on these services as well.

By the late 1990s and into the 2000s, the simultaneous substitution regulation had reached its full potential, with Canadian broadcast networks airing almost all of their US-purchased programming in sync with the US network's broadcast to ensure maximum eligibility to request substitution.

Effects

The high incidence of simultaneous substitution requests by privately-owned Canadian television networks to draw advertising dollars^[1] has had profound effects on various spectrums, ranging from Canadian network schedules to portions of programming being lost due to mistimed substitutions.

Network schedules

As private Canadian broadcast networks such as CTV, Global, CTV Two and Citytv often rely heavily on US-originating programs, their programming schedules are often heavily affected by the schedules of corresponding United States network broadcasters.^[7] For example, if Fox, a US network, were to move their series House to a new time slot, the Canadian broadcaster of first-run episodes of that program would need to move their broadcast of House to correspond with the new Fox time slot if they wished to retain simultaneous substitution rights.

In some instances, American television stations near the border — especially those in small markets which depend on their audience in a nearby Canadian market for their financial viability — have intentionally counter-programmed against this rule by altering their schedules in order to avoid substitutions. In one notable instance, WFFF-TV in Burlington, Vermont constantly re-scheduled its daily airings of That 70's Show in order to prevent CJNT-TV in Montreal from invoking the rule.^[8]

Many US networks air their most popular programming during prime time hours, meaning that in order to maximize simsub opportunities Canadian private broadcasters are often unable or unwilling to air their own original programming during these hours. As a result, Canadian content programming is commonly scheduled as a secondary concern, to fill holes where an American program cannot be placed for substitution. This issue has also extended beyond scripted entertainment programming — all three major networks in Canada have faced criticism for at least one incident in which the network seemingly deemed a live Canadian news or cultural awards program to be less important than simsubbing an American reality show:

• In 2003, Global flagship station CIII offloaded its coverage of the Ontario provincial election to then-sister station CHCH Hamilton in order to maintain simsub rights to an episode of Survivor: Pearl Islands.
• In 2006, CBC Television was criticized when it announced a plan to bump its primary network newscast, The National, to a later time one night a week in order to simulcast the short-lived The One: Making a Music Star.
• In 2007, CTV was forced to back down on a plan to tape-delay the 2007 Juno Awards in order to maintain its simsub rights to an episode of The Amazing Race.^[5]

Portions of programming lost

Due to the high number of simultaneous substitutions requested by Canadian broadcasters, portions of programming are sometimes lost. This may occur for a variety of reasons, including the cable provider erroneously timing the substitution or substituting over the wrong distant signal, the Canadian broadcaster making a scheduling error when requesting substitution, or the American broadcaster making a last minute change to its schedule. Also, should a Canadian network interrupt its programming to deliver breaking news while simulcasting an American show, the American program cannot be viewed.

With the increasingly common practice of American stations extending programs for a minute or two into the start of the next hour in order to avoid audience loss,^[9] such errors are sometimes unavoidable if the Canadian station is not able to match the altered start time.

High-definition television

High-definition television (HDTV) feeds must also be simultaneously substituted, but due to the lack of local over-the-air HDTV transmitters outside of major markets (such as Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area), HD simsubs are not very common outside of the aforementioned areas.

Although the CRTC's policy regarding HD simultaneous substitutions do not require them to be applied if the quality of the Canadian feed is not equal or better than the US feed, there have been instances in which inferior Canadian feeds were substituted over higher-quality US feeds. In such cases, complaints can be filed to the CRTC, whereas the commission will confer with the applicable BDU and Canadian network about the issue.

On-screen graphics

An opaque, gray CTV bug is placed on a CTV broadcast of American Idol to overlay the pre-embedded Fox bug.

An example of how Global would place their bug if US network's bug is present.

Implementation of simultaneous substitutions can also cause issues involving digital on-screen graphics (or "bugs") applied by the originating broadcaster. Some Canadian broadcasters (primarily stations owned by CTVglobemedia) overlay opaque bugs over the US bug, while others add their own bug to a different area of the screen.

Exceptions

Enforcement, or lack thereof, of the regulations has led to instances where some Canadian cable and satellite subscribers are able to receive the original American channels in Canada without simultaneous substitution.

For example, many viewers in the Greater Toronto Area can pick up American channels from Buffalo, New York over the air, as well as unmatched high definition versions of the stations from both Buffalo and Seattle, Washington on cable. Many viewers from Toronto were able to watch these channels for events such as the 2008 Super Bowl where there were no Canadian commercial interruptions. However, following a complaint filed by CTV in 2008, the CRTC has tightened up enforcement, issuing a statement that the Super Bowl XLIII standard and high definition broadcasts must be simsubbed for providers within range of CTV's OTA transmitters.^[10]

Simsubs and satellite

In terms of satellite, the practice of simsubbing depends on the company. Shaw Direct invokes simsubs according to the subscriber's postal code, and is implemented by the receiver's firmware; this method enforces simsubs only in areas where they are needed.

Bell TV invokes simsubs to all subscribers nationwide, implemented by its uplink centre; by doing so, simsubs for a particular channel are implemented nationwide, regardless of where the subscriber lives or which feed the subscriber watches. Notably, despite not legally needing to do so, Bell TV also invokes simsubs on programming being simulcast by TSN and TSN2 — sports channels that have been owned by Bell since 2001.

Other uses

Although simultaneous substitution was conceived to substitute the signal of a foreign station, the practice has been applied as well to substitute the signal of a non-local Canadian station in a given market. For example in Montreal, the signal of Ottawa's CJOH-TV has frequently been substituted by the signal of local station CFCF-TV, even though both stations are part of the CTV network.

Simultaneous substitution has also been implemented on French language television stations. From the 1970s to the mid-1990s, TVA's flagship Montreal station CFTM-TV regularly had its signal substituting that of its Sherbrooke sister station CHLT-TV (which was obtainable in the Montreal area until 1995).

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Signal substitution replaces one TV signal with another — CRTC.ca. Retrieved on March 7, 2009.
2. ^ ^{a b} Canadian Super Bowl fans shut out — CTV.ca. Retrieved on March 7, 2009.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Simultaneous substitution on cable TV — Canadian Communications Foundation. Retrieved on March 7, 2009.
4. ^ Simulcasting — Merriam Webster. Retrieved on March 7, 2009.
5. ^ ^{a b} CTV backs down on Juno air time — CBC.ca. Retrieved on March 7, 2009.
6. ^ CRTC looks to retool Canadian TV — Friends.ca. Retrieved on March 8, 2009.
7. ^ Beaty, B. (2006). Canadian Television Today. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781552382226. 
8. ^ CJNT & WFFF, A War over Canadian commercials heats up. TVHat via archive.org.
9. ^ Extended episode of House could plague DVR users — Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
10. ^ "Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-358: Complaint regarding the simultaneous substitution of the high definition broadcast of the 2008 Super Bowl". CRTC. 2008-12-22. http://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2008/db2008-358.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-02.