A Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll reports that the majority of Canadians — 56 per cent — feel the CBC did the right thing by refusing to pay more than $1 million for a year’s licence of the song. (27% of people think the Corp should have shelled out.)

Among hockey fans, the support fell to 52%, but still enough to counter the 40% of these people who opposed the CBC’s decision.

Perhaps demonstrating the quintessential Canadian “middle of the fence” opinion (pronounced “meh…”), 59% of Canadians said they weren’t really moved by the CBC’s loss of the song.

Less than 15% surveyed believed the CBC would lose Hockey Night in Canada viewers because it lost the theme song.

Meanwhile, CBC sports head seems to be playfully hinting that the new theme contest may in fact be trumped by a deal with Stompin’ Tom Connors to use his famous “Hockey Song.” “You never know,” Moore said Wednesday. “Let’s just say we had him on the NHL Awards - that’s all I’ll say.” Connors is said to be open to licensing the song to the CBC as a replacement.

UPDATE: To be clear, Canadian Press, nor any company, was the “client” in this survey. Harris/Decima frequently releases its data with CP, as part of CP’s media sponsorship with the firm.

(hit tip to iNudes for the story)

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	HNIC Theme, Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 11:53 pm (18 Jun 2008)

Harris/Decima confirms they conducted a poll in which several questions about the Hockey Night in Canada theme are asked. But, the research company say that nobody is paying them to do it.

Seems the survey company is doing it on their own “as a business development undertaking.” But, for now, “The CBC is not involved in this undertaking and did not pay for these questions,” Harris/Decima’s Kevin Loiselle says.

UPDATED: In fact, the poll only had another company’s name on it (Canadian Press) because CP and Harris/Decima have a media sponsorship arrangement whereby CP’s name appears on many of the surveys H/D publishes. According to H/D, they’ll release the full results (with demographic data, etc.) to any group for free. It’s the analysis of that data where they would begin charging.

The poll was conducted nationally and is is now completed. The company says it doesn’t have a timetable for release yet.

The exact text of the five questions were:

1. Would you say that you are an avid fan, an occasional follower, or not really interested in NHL Hockey?
2. As you may have heard, the theme song for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts will in the future be used by CTV for its hockey broadcasts on TSN. The owner of the theme song wanted to increase the royalties for the use of the song. The CBC and the owner were unable to agree on a fee for the rights, and CTV offered the song’s owner over 1 Million dollars for the rights for five years. Would you say that you are very happy, happy, sad or very sad at this development, or that it doesn’t matter to you one way or another?
3. In your opinion, should the CBC have been willing to offer over a million dollars to keep the rights, or did the CBC do the right thing by not offering to pay that much?
4. The CBC has said that it will run a national contest to find a new song for its Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, do you think this is a very good, good, bad or very bad idea?
5. Do you believe that as a result of losing the familiar theme song and replacing it with a new one, that the audience for CBC’s Hockey broadcasts will grow in the future, stay the same, or shrink?

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	HNIC Theme, Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 3:26 pm (16 Jun 2008)