A large percentage of those who think they will be watching the NFL’s Super Bowl in high definition on Sunday will not be watching in HDTV.
That’s the conclusion of a U.S.-based industry analyst, based on reported sales of TV displays, cable or satellite subscriptions, and the market’s overall knowledge of consumer products and related technology.
But the reports could also be based on the experiences related by Canadian TV viewers, and the many recent complaints that have been voiced regarding the technical quality and format specifications of signals delivered in Canada.
Based on viewer reports, complaints and online postings, viewers of recent NFL game coverage say that signals provided by Global TV, for example, were far below high definition standards ¿ to the point of being called “unwatchable”.
Viewers say that simultaneous commercial substitution caused the picture quality to suffer, and audio signals to be interrupted.
A network spokesperson rejected that scenario, and said the signal was delivered as received from the U.S. ¿ albeit absent 5.1 surround sound.
The broadcast is available via satellite and digital cable.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, has posted information designed to give insight into the underlying process and procedure for HDTV tranmission. (see www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2007/i070201.htm for more information).
The CRTC states that “[it is the Commission’s policy that a signal of a better quality should not be replaced with a lesser quality signal. This means that the signal of a non-Canadian broadcaster should only be replaced with that of a Canadian broadcaster where the Canadian broadcaster’s signal is of the same or better quality than the non-Canadian one].”
In its website posting entitled, Why substitute Canadian for American advertising
during the Super Bowl?, the Commission provides answers to questions apparently designed to address viewers’ concerns.
Meanwhile, industry reports indicate that Canadian advertisers are paying almost $100,000 CDN for 30 seconds on Global’s Super Bowl telecast, but even at those prices, with commercial substitution, Canadian viewers do not see the U.S. spots, reportedly being sold for $2.6 million USD south of the border.
However, the U.S. commercials will be available online. AOL Canada says it will stream the spots, almost immediately after they air, on its website.
In general, though, HDTV viewing is not as widespread as many would believe. Only about 52 percent of those Americans who own an HDTV set also subscribe to an HD cable or satellite service, according to a recently released study by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing. In Canada, the number may be even lower. Industry observers estimated that about 200,000 HDTV service subscriptions ¿ but more than 2 million HDTV sets ¿ had been sold last year.
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