The CRTC on Monday fingered Bell ExpressVu for ignoring long-standing simultaneous substitution rules and allowing U.S. commercials to slip through on its domestic feed of the Super Bowl telecast last February.

‘The Commission is of the view that Bell TV should not be permitted to choose the applicable regulatory approach depending on what works to the licensee’s greatest advantage in a given set of circumstances,’ the regulator wrote in response to a complaint from CTV, which holds the exclusive rights to air the NFL championship game in Canada.

CTV complained to the CRTC that Shaw Communications, its Star Choice satellite TV service and Bell ExpressVu allowed much-hyped U.S. commercials on the U.S. Fox network telecast of the Super Bowl to air on their Canadian feeds.

The CRTC said technical glitches explained Shaw’s ‘non-compliance’ but that Bell ExpressVu wrongly chose to flout Canada’s simultaneous substitution rules by airing un-substituted local Fox TV station feeds from Boston and Seattle for competitive advantage.

Shaw, Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu each deliver the Super Bowl game to Canadians differently. The CRTC found Star Choice complied with its condition of licence in its delivery of CTV’s high-definition broadcast of the NFL game.

The regulator ruled that Shaw and Bell ExpressVu will have to complete the simultaneous substitution of the 2009 Super Bowl game in high-definition, with Shaw employing manual override of its equipment should it fail again.