Signal swap sidelines U.S. commercials

SHOSHONE COUNTY - Some people watch the Super Bowl for the bruising hits, the skyrocketing passes and the potential for a dramatic finish as the last seconds of the fourth quarter tick away.

Others watch America's signature sporting event for just one reason - the big-budget, star-studded commercials.

Many Silver Valley football fanatics were in for a big surprise on Super Bowl Sunday - for local SuddenLink cable subscribers, the American commercials were replaced with Canadian advertisements.

The commercial swap impacted all Shoshone County SuddenLink customers, according to Pete Abel, vice president of corporate communications.

SuddenLink, Abel said, receives its NBC station out of Spokane via a third-party Canadian company called Cancom. The relationship between SuddenLink and Cancom has been in place for a decade, Abel said.

The Canadian company, "without any prior notice," replaced the American commercials with Canadian Television Network (CTV) advertisements.

"By game time it was too late to do anything about it," Abel said.

"We were not notified," he said. "It had never happened before. None of us are happy about that. Our customers aren't happy about it."

According to Patricia McRae, president and general manager of Spokane-based KHQ Incorporated, Canada's CTV Network purchased the exclusive rights to the Super Bowl for Canadian TV and any American station on the Canadian cable system - including KHQ subscribers in the Silver Valley.

"What happened during the Super Bowl was a signal substitution," McRae reported in an e-mail distributed to KHQ customers. "Signal substitution occurs when a Canadian TV station requests that larger cable companies or a satellite company insert the signal of the Canadian TV station on the channel of a more distant station (usually an American station) that is showing the same program at the same time."

Like SuddenLink, KHQ was unaware of the commercial substitution until gametime, McRae said in a phone interview with the News-Press.

"We had no idea either," she said. "This is one that caught everybody off-guard."

McRae said the Super Bowl swap impacted boarder towns served by smaller cable providers spanning the KHQ viewing area.

Abel said SuddenLink is in talks with Cancom to explore other options in the future.

"We are very sorry to all of our customers," Abel said.

The substitution bewildered some Silver Valley residents gathered together for Super Bowl bashes.

The Sunshine Inn in Kellogg hosted an all-American themed Super Bowl party Sunday, featuring a pickup truck in the bar area, hot dogs and hamburgers, and plenty of Jack Daniel's. The back drop of the TV, Sunshine Inn property manager Shari Ricard said, was an enormous American flag.

"It was a little bit of a pickle," said Ricard.

Ricard said the dozens of football fans who came together for good eats and gridiron action at the Sunshine still got their money's worth.

"This is a game," Ricard reminded the partygoers. "Don't forget to have fun."

For those still craving a wacky advertisement or two, all of the Super Bowl commercials can be viewed at www.hulu.com.

Northland Cable customers in Sandpoint reported on Monday that they also received Canadian advertising content during the Super Bowl.

Company officials said they plan to release a statement today concerning the situation.