Super Bowl Advertising - Internationally

Internationally

Super Bowl commercials are generally limited to the American broadcast of the game—preventing international viewers from watching the game with these often iconic commercials. However, in recent years, some television stations in Canada have aired highlights of the commercials during their local newscasts, and Super Bowl advertisers have posted their commercials on websites such as YouTube following the game, alleviating the issue (and also allowing the ads to further become viral as well). Complaints about the non-availability of the U.S. Super Bowl ads are common in Canada; although U.S. network affiliates are widely available on Canadian cable and satellite providers, the "simultaneous substitution" regulations give Canadian television networks the right to request that a U.S. feed of a program be replaced with its Canadian counterpart on these providers if it is airing a program in simulcast with a U.S. network. This rule is intended to protect the investments of Canadian broadcasters in exclusive domestic broadcast rights, and also protect Canadian advertisers who had purchased their own advertising time on the Canadian network. As a result, most Super Bowl ads are effectively "blacked out" by the Canadian broadcaster.

Some U.S.-based advertisers, particularly PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch (via its Canadian subsidiary Labatt), do buy ad time during the CTV broadcast (which costs a fraction of the price to air an ad on the U.S. broadcast) to air at least some of their American commercials, while some companies produce new ads specifically for the Canadian audience. However, many Canadian advertisers simply re-air ads from their regular rotation, or air the same ad multiple times over the course of the game, neither of which is typical during the U.S. network broadcast. Reasons cited by Canadian advertisers for these practices include the additional talent and post-production fees that would be required to broadcast the American ads in Canada, and the perceived lower "cultural resonance" of the game for Canadian viewers as opposed to Americans. However, the inverse has also occurred with Canadian companies purchasing ad time during the game in the U.S.: in 2013, Gildan Activewear and BlackBerry will both air Super Bowl ads in the Canada and the U.S., while the Bank of Montreal bought local advertising time in some areas to promote its BMO Harris Bank branches.