The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Canadian sports fans apparently jumped on the chance to watch American ads during the Super Bowl when given the chance for the first time. The Post's Emily Jackson writes that Bell Media's ratings for CTV, CTV Two and TSN dropped 39 per cent to an average audience of 4.47 million viewers for the big National Football League game Sunday, down from 7.32 million on CTV in 2016. Bell places the blame squarely on the CRTC's new policy that banned the substitution of big-budget U.S. ads on the FOX broadcast with commercials targeted at a Canadian audience, a practice called simultaneous substitution or simsub. Viewers apparently flocked to FOX instead of sticking to local ads on their local broadcast. "The CRTC's decision is clearly having a direct and negative impact on Canadian viewers, advertisers, and the broader broadcasting and creative community. We'll continue our fight alongside the NFL to reverse it," Bell spokesman Scott Henderson said in an e-mailed statement. Bell and the NFL are fighting the decision in Federal Court. They argue the CRTC does not have the power to ban simsub for a single broadcast. (The rule only applies to the Super Bowl.)