Hockey Night Gets Snookered
Monday June 9, 2008
Songwriter Dolores Claman has sold the iconic theme song used to open the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts on CBC since 1968 to rival broadcaster CTV... CTV said in a press release that it has bought the song outright, ensuring that it will never go back to the public broadcaster.
- Globeandmail.com
The CBC is no doubt gambling that the whole fuss will be forgotten in a couple of years, when everyone gets used to a nifty new theme.
Whether CTV can get true value from a tune so readily identified with its rival is debatable. What's clear is that the head of CBC Sports has no understanding of the value of an iconic piece of music:
"I can only imagine the headlines if we had bought the song at the amount that they were asking for, which was between $2.5- and $3-million," Mr. Moore said. "I don't think the taxpayers of Canada would have appreciated that."Maybe he's right. But considering how little $3 million buys in the world of television production, ownership of the most famous song in Canada would have been a bargain at the price.
Comments
The CBC our Great Protector of Culture has proved it really has no clue about true Canadian culture. This whole episode has epitomized the CBC as headed by incompetent, arrogant fools in a bubble. The really pathetic part is that we, the People, pay these these incompetents to look after Our interests. Was it in the best interest of the representative of all the people of Canada to let an iconic song be taken into the private domain for prepetuity by a private corporation? I don’t think so. Heads should roll at the CBC but they won’t. The Corporation just doesn’t operate that way.
Even more outrageous, the CBC was not being asked to pay millions!
The song’s administrator and the daughter of the songwriter are both on the record stating clearly that the CBC was being offered the chance to continue using the Hockey Theme song for the price of only $500 per broadcast. (With a nominal 15% increase after a couple of years licensing.)
But, in a move that defines stupid, CBC Sports thought they’d grind the price down even more and tried to play hardball with the 80 year-old composer. Huge mistake. CTV stepped up and offered fair market value - when CBC had it in their hands at much less expense.