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The simple math is telling: Nearly 3 million Canadians the past two years have watched the NFL’s championship game on the root American network.

Why? Probably in large part to watch the funny, buzzy commercials that debut during the Super Bowl, but also in part – if my e-mails over the past two years are an accurate representation, and I believe they are – because Canadian commercials on the Bell channels air in far more frequent rotation, aren’t nearly as entertaining, and because Bell shamelessly ramrods endless promos of other CTV/TSN programming into every commercial break during the game, to the point of abusing viewers.

The NFL and Bell Media continue to fight the CRTC ruling. They are asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear their appeal, after losing a lower-court appeal a few weeks ago.

One of NFL/Bell arguments is the Super Bowl is unfairly picked on, as it is the only U.S. sports telecast for which the CRTC makes this simulcast substitution exception.

Another argument is that Bell cannot charge nearly as much for its Super Bowl ads, what with far fewer Canadians watching its simulcasts. Bell Media, in fact, blamed recent layoffs in part on the revenue declines caused by the CRTC’s ruling.

In the United States, Sunday’s Super Bowl attracted the 10th-highest average viewership in American TV history: 103.4 million on NBC.

The Top 8 most-watched shows all-time are the other eight Super Bowls from this decade, led by the 114.4 million who saw New England edge Seattle three years ago in Super Bowl XLIX. The No. 9 most-viewed program in U.S. history was the 1983 M*A*S*H series finale, the only non-Super Bowl in the Top 10.

Some will point critically to the fact that Sunday’s Super Bowl LII is the lowest-rated since the 2008 season. But viewership of all TV programming is down substantially (double-digit percentages) on traditional TV networks over the past two years.

Also, Sunday’s game is far and away the most watched program in the U.S. this TV season, dating back to September, to the extent the game’s audience is double that of the second-most-watched show: Another NFL game, the AFC championship game two weeks ago, when New England beat Jacksonville.