Rule prevents hyped Super Bowl ads being shown in Canada

Unless there was a computer nearby, it's unlikely many Canadians caught the multi-million dollar Super Bowl commercials during Sunday's big game.

The reason is simple: although Canadian stations buy the rights to air the actual Super Bowl in Canada, they sell the commercial advertising slots to Canadian advertisers.

So despite watching NBC, an American station, cable service providers in Canada replace the American feed with a Canadian one during the commercial breaks.

When broadcasters buy programs from American or Canadian producers or networks, they pay substantial sums of money to have exclusive rights in their home markets.

The simultaneous substitution requirements are designed to protect those rights.