Where can I watch the 2023 Super Bowl in Canada?

Super Bowl ⅬⅦ, the 57th edition of the modern-era championship game for the National Football League (NFL), is taking place on Sunday, February 12, 2023. The Kansas City Chiefs, the champions of the American Football Conference (AFC), will face the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles. The game will be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona; under NFL rules, the Eagles will be the designated "home" team, as is the case for the NFC representatives in odd-numbered years.

The game will be available to watch in Canada on the CTV broadcast network and its streaming platforms (as well as NTV, the main private TV station serving Newfoundland and Labrador, which only has a loose association with CTV these days); the TSN and RDS cable sports channels and their respective streaming apps; and the TSN+ and DAZN streaming services.

TSN+, which launched in early 2023 and remains available in free preview as of this writing, is offering a data-enhanced feed of the game which started at the kickoff time of 6:30 p.m. EST. However, unlike earlier playoff games where TSN+ used an augmented version of the main game coverage, the Super Bowl version of this coverage is instead using an "all-22" overhead view without commentary.

The other streaming options mentioned require some form of paid subscription, either direct-to-consumer, or indirectly through a cable, satellite, or fibre-based TV provider.

Game coverage will also be available on Fox – and CTV and TSN will be airing Fox's game broadcast – however the American commercials will not be available if you watch Fox through a cable or satellite provider in Canada in most of Canada, as we'll get into below. The Fox and Fox Sports streaming apps are also not available in Canada, nor will Fox's Tubi service be allowed to stream the game in this country.

What time is the Super Bowl in Canada?

As has been typical (at least in terms of approximate times) for several years, the game is scheduled to kick-off at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (the time zone that covers most of Ontario and Quebec).

In other time zones, this works out to be:

• 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time (the time zone covering most of British Columbia)
• 4:30 p.m. Mountain Time (the local time at the venue in Arizona, and the time zone covering Yukon [since late 2020], Alberta, most of Nunavut, parts of the Northwest Territories, small portions of eastern B.C., and Lloydminster on the Alberta/Saskatchewan border)
• 5:30 p.m. Central Time (covering Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, northwestern Ontario, and part of Nunavut)
• 7:30 p.m. Atlantic Time (covering New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and most of Labrador)
• 8:00 p.m. Newfoundland Time (covering the island of Newfoundland, and a small part of southern Labrador)

The overall game broadcast will begin at about 6:00 p.m. ET / 3:00 p.m. PT with introductory comments from Fox game announcers Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, and kickoff ceremonies like the coin toss and a performance of the U.S. national anthem.

Fox's main pregame coverage will begin at 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT, but frankly we don't think your viewing experience will benefit from tuning in that early.

The halftime show, which this year is scheduled to feature a performance from Barbadian singer Rhianna, should begin five to ten minutes after the second quarter ends, roughly between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. ET. Typically, the Super Bowl half-time performance lasts for around 20 minutes.

The earliest the game could end would be around 9:30–9:45 p.m. ET, and postgame ceremonies like the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy will likely drag the broadcast out for at least another 20 minutes or so after that. The current Fox schedule shows their post-game show airing until 10:30 p.m. ET, though that could be pushed forward or back depending on when the game actually ends.

How do you spell "Superbowl"?

The term "Super Bowl" is two words. The name is derived from end-of-season college football bowl games, the first and longest-running being the Rose Bowl Game played at the namesake bowl-shaped stadium in Pasadena, California, followed by similar games like the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl – not to mention all kinds of other event "bowls" .

Thus, referring to the game as "Superbowl LVII" or "Superbowl 57" or similar is technically incorrect, but we realize that's how a lot of people type it, so we kind of need to mention it here. (You're aware of search engine optimization, right?)

Of course, depending on your interests, you may also find the day of the "Big Game" an appropriate opportunity to examine the specimen of a superb owl or two.

Can I stream the Super Bowl in Canada?

Yes, with caveats.

Normally, in terms of media outlets authorized by the NFL to stream the game, you would need some sort of paid subscription to stream the Super Bowl – either a service from a cable or similar TV provider that includes at least one of CTV, TSN, or RDS, or an over-the-top streaming subscription to either the direct-to-consumer versions of TSN or RDS, or DAZN.

However, the 2023 edition is a partial exception, as we'll explain below with regards to TSN+.

Even though CTV (and NTV) broadcast free, over-the-air, in several major cities across Canada, CTV only authorizes live streaming access to its linear channels to subscribers of participating TV providers (and NTV's free online stream generally only features local Newfoundland and Labrador programming). In other words, if you don't have a cable, satellite, or fibre-based TV service subscription, there is no authorized mechanism to be able to stream CTV for free.

If you do not have a TV service subscription, the authorized streaming options at your disposal are as follows (all prices are in Canadian dollars and are before applicable sales taxes):

• TSN+ – a new, separate direct-to-consumer service operated by TSN which launched in early 2023, apparently intended to be their equivalent of the American ESPN+ service, which is scheduled to provide a "data-enhanced" feed with additional graphics. Unlike what TSN+ offered for earlier playoff games, this is an overhead view only without game announcers. As of February 12, this service remains available as a limited-time free preview, subject only to providing an email address (which does not need to be verified to start watching) in at least some cases.
• TSN (formerly TSN Direct) – The Sports Network's over-the-top streaming equivalent of its cable TV offering, which costs $19.99 for a month, or $199.90 for a year if billed annually. You can watch the game live on either TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, or TSN5. (A day pass that was offered in past years was discontinued in late 2022.)
• RDS (previously RDS Direct) – The equivalent service for TSN's French-language sibling network, Le Réseau des Sports (RDS). Prices are the same as TSN's direct-to-consumer service; this service will only allow you to watch the game live en français.
• DAZN – An international sports streaming service owned by Access Industries which holds the Canadian rights to NFL Game Pass, the league's online streaming package that includes live and archived access to all NFL games, including the Super Bowl. The minimum subscription length is $24.99 for one month; an annual subscription ($199.99) is also available.

Note that international broadcasters such as Fox do not have the rights to stream the game in Canada, due to the Canadian rights that the NFL had sold to Bell Media (parent company of CTV, TSN and RDS) as well as DAZN. As it stands, the Fox and Fox Sports apps are not available in Canada, and we do not expect you'd be able to stream the game in Canada through the network's websites.

We are aware that other methods not authorized by the NFL may exist to stream the game. However, we cannot vouch for their reliability, and any use of such methods is purely at your own risk.

Is there any other way I can watch the Super Bowl for free in Canada?

Again, CTV (and NTV) are available to watch for free over-the-air in many cities across Canada, if you have a digital-capable television and appropriate antenna setup. You can check RabbitEars.info for a list of over-the-air stations that serve your market (the Canadian markets start at number 901 on this list).

In some circumstances, you may be even able to pick up the signal of an Fox affiliate from the U.S. – however, you would need to be either very close to an American market (like Windsor, Ontario, which is right across the border from Detroit), or have a more powerful antenna than can pick up a signal from a bit further away (for example, it's possible for some Toronto residents to pick up the broadcast signals of Buffalo-based stations).

Can I watch the American Super Bowl ads in Canada?

The Super Bowl is, of course, well known for the high-budget, original advertisements that air throughout the game – in the United States. However, for the most part, Canadians looking for these ads will have to look to other online sources.

If you tune in to an Fox station through a cable or satellite provider in most of the country, you will instead see the CTV feed, including that network's commercials. This is due to a policy enforced by the CRTC, Canada's telecommunications regulator, known as simultaneous substitution (often shortened to "simsub", and sometimes referred to as "simulcasting", which is technically something slightly different but we won't go into that for now). The CRTC has published its own explainer on the topic, which you can refer to for further explanation.

CTV/TSN has sold advertising time to its own lineup of sponsors, and while a few advertisers typically buy time on both the Fox and CTV broadcasts, the majority of ads will be different.

If you thought the CRTC had banned simsubs for the Super Bowl, well, you're right – the practice was banned for the Super Bowl games in 2017, 2018 and 2019. However, in late 2019, the ban was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada, following a legal challenge by CTV's parent company Bell Canada, with the majority of the court ruling that the CRTC had overstepped its authority by imposing the ban. Even if that decision had gone the other way, the "new NAFTA"  trade deal that went into effect in July 2020 contained a provision directing the CRTC to revoke this ban.

As a result, the Super Bowl has been once again subject to simsubs since the 2020 event, and it's very unlikely that the CRTC will try anything similar again soon, unless it involves ending the simsub policy altogether (which would cause other complications for the Canadian TV industry).

There are two workarounds to the simsub policy:

• If you are able to receive an Fox affiliate's broadcast signal via an antenna as described in the preceding section, you would be able to watch all ads aired on Fox as part of the game broadcast. That's because there is no way to apply simsubs to broadcast signals sent directly over the airwaves.
   
• Some cable operators are not required to apply simsubs at all, either because they are very small (with fewer than 2,000 subscribers), or because the network requesting the simsub does not actually broadcast over-the-air in the region. In these scenarios, you might be able to watch the full Fox signal including advertising through your cable provider – however, this only covers a relatively small number of Canadians.

The good news is that there are a number of online outlets that make these ads available to watch worldwide. While there are usually a few places that collect these ads, the most reliable in our view is YouTube's AdBlitz channel, though you may also want to check resources like the USA Today Ad Meter website, and in past years even the NFL's own website has provided a section devoted to the Super Bowl ads.

A simsub is being applied improperly. Who should I complain to?

While CTV is responsible for requesting simsubs to be applied to Fox affiliate signals, they are not responsible for the technical process of signal substitution. That process is handled separately by each TV service provider (like Rogers, Shaw, Bell, Telus, Vidéotron, or Cogeco).

If there's an issue where the simsub doesn't end within a minute or so of the expected time or you're seeing the wrong program entirely, you should directly contact your service provider.

If the provider does not resolve the issue promptly, you can consider filing a complaint about the simsub with the CRTC. Note that there is (in our view) no point in filing complaints solely about missing the American ads – the commission is well aware this is an irritant for Canadian viewers, hence the attempt to change the rule for 2017 only to have it overruled by the courts.

What's airing after the game?

This year, both CTV and Fox will be carrying the same program following coverage the game and trophy presentations: the premiere of the second season of Next Level Chef, Fox's cooking reality competition series hosted by Gordon Ramsay which premiered in 2022. This will allow CTV to maintain its simsub of Fox until after 11:00 p.m. Eastern time.

The Canadian network airing the game hasn't always had rights to the lead-out program scheduled by the American network, meaning the two networks have sometimes diverged shortly after the game ends. In fact, there have been several years where CTV broke away from coverage immediately after the Vince Lombardi Trophy was handed over for its own post-Super Bowl programming – there's no risk of that happening this time.

If you watch TSN, they will likely carry most of the Fox postgame coverage before moving on to their own SportsCentre postgame coverage, scheduled to be hosted by Jay Onrait.

Significant revisions

This article is revised and republished annually to reflect that year's edition of the Super Bowl.

• February 12, 2023 – Minor updates throughout the day related to the 2023 edition. Previous versions of this article asserted that the TSN+ feed would simply be an augmented version of the main game coverage, based on how the service handled other recent playoff games; this turned out not to be the case, and we regret the error.
• February 7, 2023 – revised and republished for Super Bowl LVII
• February 11, 2022 – original publication of this article in advance of Super Bowl LVI

Just a reminder: The website you're on right now, Where Can I Watch, is an independent, third-party website not affiliated with any broadcaster or event organizer. If you have concerns about how the Super Bowl broadcast is being handled in Canada, feel free to contact CTV, your TV service provider, the NFL, or the CRTC. We unfortunately cannot assist with any specific issues you may have with the coverage beyond pointing you to these contact details.