The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that of all the arguments that Bell Media has made in the face of the CRTC's order to stop substituting Canadian ads for U.S. ones during the Super Bowl, saying that it has viewers' best interests at heart is the hardest to swallow. The Globe's Konrad Yakabuski writes that the reality is that the substitution of domestic TV signals for American ones is simply a protectionist measure that benefits vested interests in the Canadian broadcasting and advertising industries. If it could be argued 40 years ago that so-called simsub was in the public interest, that is a much harder case to make in the digital age. This has not stopped an onslaught of lobbying and lawsuits by Bell, whose CTV network owns the Canadian rights to Super Bowl broadcasts through 2019, to reverse the CRTC's order banning simsub during the NFL championship game, starting with the 2017 edition in February. The NFL loves the current arrangement, for now, since it creates a bidding war for Canadian Super Bowl rights. In the longer term, however, the league might find it more profitable to stream the big game, with its signature U.S. ads, directly to Canadian consumers on-line.