Monday, June 09, 2008

CTV gives the CBC a smackdown on the hockey theme


"Ms. Claman is suggesting that if the CBC doesn’t want her song then she’ll be more than happy to head off to the competition to belt out the opening notes. The only thing is, so far TSN and Sportsnet have been rather quiet on the whole situation and frankly it’s doubtful that they would be all that interested in the iconic anthem, as historic as it is."-- The genial host of this blog, showing that sometimes we don't know what the hell we're talking about!

Ahem, as we were thinking, we wonder if CTV might be interested in buying the theme to Hockey Night in Canada, er, yeah that's what we were thinking...

The blood feud between Canada's two largest broadcast organizations took a surprising twist today ast CTV announced that they have reached an agreement with Copyright Music & Visuals to broadcast the familiar theme "in perpetuity" on all hockey telecasts on TSN and RDS, as well as on CTV during the 2010 Olympics.

In their announcement CTV explains how privileged they are to have successfully taken guardianship of the iconic Canadian song (and perhaps if you listen carefully you can hear the raspberry directed towards CBC who now sit on the sidelines wondering what hit them).

"The song has a long and storied history in Canadian sports and has become ingrained in the hearts and minds of hockey fans across the country. It is an iconic tune, embraced by Canadians everywhere, and we felt it was imperative to save it. We know we will be in hockey forever, so there's no doubt this acquisition will create value for us," said Rick Brace, President, Revenue, Business Planning and Sports, CTV Inc. "It's an honour and a privilege to own such a cherished piece of Canadiana."

The move certainly is a coup for CTV and its group of stations, though no purchase acquisition price was announced, they felt that whatever the cost the potential for the marketing splash that will come with today's announcement will more than make up for the size of the cheque.

While we're surprised that they were that interested in a thirty second jingle, we guess that in the competitive world of sports broadcasting you seize the chance to create some buzz when it presents itself (not to mention make the occassional blogger look foolish).

This now means that the CBC will most likely be going ahead with their plans to create a new anthemic opening, ready to proceed with the cattle call of would be warblers, ready to provide the next great opening act to last for forty years...

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