[Bobblehead]

Wow, you don't really strike me as "even keeled" if you "almost blew a gasket" when CTV talked about American commercials.

Sumsubs suck, I would far prefer to see the new funny commercials rather than those Panago or Bell commercials, but I'm not sure it is an issue worth grabbing the pitchforks and storming the castle over.

I'm sure if you want to see the HD versions of the commercials you will be able to find the HD commercials. I know I have seen them all packed in a file on a torrent site after previous Superbowls.

I'm not sure the CRTC is the one to blame here. It is CTV who is the one causing the issues. If they don't request sumsubs, there won't be any.

And it isn't like the CRTC is a CTV lackey. There were no repercussions for Shaw - Shaw gave a reason why they didn't simsub, the CRTC accepted that ("In light of the above, the Commission finds that Shaw was in non-compliance with its requirement to perform simultaneous substitution of CTV’s HD broadcast of the 2008 Super Bowl, but also accepts its explanation that technical difficulties prohibited it from performing that simultaneous substitution."). And the CRTC said Star Choice did nothing wrong, StarChoice handled the issue exactly like their license required ("In light of this, the Commission considers that Star Choice was in compliance with its condition of licence in regard to the simultaneous substitution of the 2008 Super Bowl in HD.")

Bell EVU was the only one faulted for willfully violating the simsub, which is ironic since they are both owned by Bell Globemedia.