The CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada attracted the largest debut audience in the program’s history last Saturday.

On average 2.3 million viewers tuned in for the first game; either a ‘Battle of Ontario’ match up between Ottawa and Toronto or the Habs taking on Pittsburgh, depending on your location.

The ratings for the first game were up 34 per cent from last year.

The second game, Vancouver against L.A. attracted 1.4 million people, up 26 per cent from last season’s Saturday night broadcast.

Unlike many other big TV events, Hockey Night’s record audience isn’t due to the new measurement system, as the system was already in place for last year’s season debut.

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 8:59 pm (12 Oct 2010)

Hockey Night in Canada will broadcast the first-ever 3D HD hockey games this season. The CBC will broadcast two 3D HD games Montreal versus Toronto on Saturday, December 11, and the Heritage Classic from McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Sunday, February 20, 2011.

The Toronto Sun covered this here, or employees can access the press release on the internal CBC site here.

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 9:34 pm (29 Sep 2010)

It’s almost fall, and our national obsession returns.

The NHL announced the schedule for the HNIC broadcasts today.

All in all the CBC gets 87 regular and pre-season games, including 29 all-Canadian matchups.

The TSN channels have 124 games.

But the CBC gets dibs on a real classic, the Heritage Classic in fact, which hasn’t been played in Canada since 2003 when the Habs faced the Oilers in a freezing rink in Edmonton.

This year the action is in Calgary, and again features the Habs. It should be amazing.

Otherwise the ceeb is ponying up 13 hours of coverage for the 11th Hockey Day in Canada extravaganza including a NHL tripleheader featuring all six Canadian-based teams.

Hockey Night in Canada, now in it’s 58th regular season is considered by wikipedia to be the “world’s oldest sports-related television program still on the air.” So there.

The entire broadcast schedule is after the jump.

[Read more →]

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 10:52 pm (25 Aug 2010)

**UPDATE** The Globe is reporting that Gillis (or someone from the Canucks organization) will meet with the CBC this week to discuss the spat. “We’re going to meet with them and we’re going to see what their reaction is and go from there.” Gillis said today.

The ongoing spat between the Vancouver Canucks and the CBC is dragging into a second week, with Canucks General Manager Mike Gilles saying yesterday that he doesn’t know if he will make Vancouver Canucks players available for CBC interviews this weekend.

“I don’t know yet,” Gillis said when asked if he would make players available for Saturday’s Hockey Day in Canada game. Scott Moore, the boss over at the sports unit, said an apology might be forthcoming after he talked with Gillis on Monday. “The only thing I’ll say is we’ve had very good discussions,” Moore said to the Province.

The row started last over a segment and interview on Hockey Night in Canada on the Alex Burrows-Stephane Auger affair. The controversy is over Alex Burrows’ allegation that a Stephan Auger, a referee, was out to get him. MacLean’s segment on the incident infuriated the Canucks management. The segment is below.

What do you think? Should the CBC issue an apology?

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 2:42 pm (26 Jan 2010)

“We may start to play with how much of the country sees the Leafs or the Sens or the Habs based on team performance and matchup.”

Scott Moore, the executive director of CBC Sports said that Hockey Night in Canada is considering limiting coverage of the Toronto Maple Leafs if the NHL team’s early season slide continues. He made the comments in an email to Sun Media this week.

“We are ready to make changes whenever we have to,” the show’s executive producer, Sherali Najak told the Sun. “We’ll watch every week and rely on the numbers, but what we’ve learned is that fans want to see some variety.”

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 8:07 am (23 Oct 2009)

The word of the day is pansy. Hockey Night commentator Mike Milbury used the term “pansification” to describe the impact of banning fighting in the NHL a couple weeks ago. Now a gay-rights group has complained to the CBC about his use of the term.

So what does pansy mean? The trusty Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it:

pan·sy: 1: a garden plant (Viola wittrockiana)

2: a usually disparaging a weak or effeminate man or boy. b usually disparaging: a male homosexual.

Now I don’t know what Milbury was thinking when he used the term, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t describing a flower. CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay said “the way the language evolves over time, 20 or 30 years ago it would have been seen, reasonably enough, as a direct slur against gay people… But I think with usage now, I’m not sure the association is so immediate.”

A letter to the editor in the Globe and Mail today says “Politically correct attacks on seemingly mild language have grown tiresome over the years… his preferred term seems more quaint than insulting.”

So what do you think, did Milbury go to far? Is pansy a gay slur, or has it lost that meaning?

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 11:38 am (30 Jan 2009)

CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada scored its largest audience for an NHL all-star game in nine years after a national average audience of 1.516 million viewers tuned into Sunday’s festivities in Montreal.  For more, read the full article at cbc.ca.

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 6:00 pm (27 Jan 2009)

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)

Received this email from a reliable source, wondering if the HNIC theme was being polled by some firm — the CBC? CTV?

I got a phone call a few minutes ago, picked up because I was expecting a call from my sister. It was Harris Decima.  (And I was so curious about what pollsters ask that I cheated and said I didn’t work for the media ) I was honest in all my other answers.

They asked me a couple of questions about the economy, if I smoked  (no) and what grocery stores I shopped at.

They then asked three questions about the  HNIC  theme controversy.
1. Had I heard of the HNIC theme controversy? I had.
2. The second question was loaded.  It went something like this.  The CBC recently offered over a million dollars to the composer (according to her interview in the Globe was about $800K) but she turned it down  and CTV offered her $2.5 million. Are you happy?

What kind of f**king question is that? I had the polster repeat it. Am I happy?

UPDATE: Harris/Decima denies that was the text of the questions. The exact text of the questions, written by the company’s president himself, can be found here.

How are you supposed to answer the rigged question? I am not happy that the CBC lost the HNIC theme.  But I am happy that the composer got the money she richly deserved after she was being nickel and dimed by the CBC. So in the end I said I was happy.

Question 3: What did I think the reality show on the new  HNIC theme? Good idea? Good and bad? Bad idea? Don’t care?

I said what I thought– it’s a bad idea.

Next couple of questions were about tomatoes and samonella and who would I vote for in my riding.

UPDATE: Harris/Decima has confirmed the existence of the poll and has offered additional details, notably that no organization has paid for the results.

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 12:00 am (16 Jun 2008)

The CBC expressed disappointment today that it was unable to reach an agreement on the Hockey Night in Canada theme, but said it was looking forward to proceeding with a nation-wide contest to select a new theme song.

“The owner’s demand of $2.5 to 3 million is well beyond—actually, three or four times as much as—what we consider to be a reasonable valuation,” said Scott Moore, executive director, Television Sports. “As a public broadcaster, it would have been irresponsible to have offered that amount.”

While CTV now holds the rights to the song, CBC said the theme will undoubtedly continue to be associated with CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada—the most recognized brand in Canadian sports.

Moore said he’s excited about the contest, announced Friday, to select a new theme song for Hockey Night in Canada. “We’re looking forward to a tremendous contest, which will see Canadians—Hockey Night’s viewers—creating and selecting new music for the country’s most famous sports broadcast. In fact, we’ve already started hearing from people across the country, calling and writing for more information.”

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 6:34 pm (09 Jun 2008)

And the drama continues…

CTV has bought the rights to theme song used by Hockey Night in Canada. And they’ve bought it forever.

The agreement was reached with Copyright Music & Visuals, which was unable to renew a deal with CBC Sports. Earlier today, the CBC announced it would be willing to use a third-party mediator to arbitrate the dispute. Clearly, it was already too late.

The song has been used on Hockey Night in Canada since 1968.

More at cbcnews.ca

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 2:53 pm (09 Jun 2008)

The CBC has proposed to use an independent third-party mediator to resolve the dispute between the Corp and the rights-holder of the Hockey Night in Canada theme.

No word yet from the “other side.”

A CBC spokesperson, though, doesn’t sound particularly hopeful, telling InsideTheCBC.com that “We’ve tried mediation before (unsuccessfully, as it turns out). We’ve also proposed arbitration, with no luck.”

Cross your fingers.

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 10:10 am (09 Jun 2008)

TEXT OF A NEWS RELEASE FROM CBC
COMMENT AND FOLLOW-UP TO COME LATER IN THE WEEKEND

After more than 13 months of negotiations, CBC is saddened to announce that a deal has not been reached with the rights holders for an extension of “The Hockey Theme” – CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA theme song.

“We share with all Canadians the disappointment of this news, as we feel as strongly about the theme as they do,” said Scott Moore, executive director of CBC Sports. “We are proud of the association with the former theme song and are saddened that we were unable to reach a deal, especially when we presented an offer which we believe was not substantively different from what the rights holders had proposed to us. We love the song and know this is a huge disappointment for us and for millions of Canadians. As of today, CBC Sports is moving forward with our plan to have the Canadian public compose the new Hockey Night in Canada theme song.”

CBC, in conjunction with leading music producers Nettwerk Music Group, will conduct a nationwide search, inviting Canadians to write and record an original song for CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA. Then, in a debate that is certain to dominate conversations throughout the country, fans and a jury of experts will choose the best new composition. CBC will offer $100,000 for the winning song, which will then become the new “official theme song” of CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA and will be heard in every broadcast. A portion of the new theme song’s royalties will be donated to minor hockey in Canada. Details surrounding the contest will be announced next week.

“This contest will generate passionate interest among Canadians,” said Moore. “The winning theme promises to be an anthem for a whole new generation to kick off our coverage every Saturday night and beyond.”

This is not the first time CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA has introduced a new theme song. Since the show’s debut in 1952, numerous pieces of music have been used to welcome viewers to hockey on Saturday nights. The program’s most recent theme, “The Hockey Theme,” made its debut on CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA during the 1968 season.

“It will be amazing to hear how Canada’s musical artists will interpret the show and to follow the contest through which the new song will be selected,” Moore continued. “We’ll have more details on the new contest next week.”

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 10:14 pm (06 Jun 2008)

Don’t count the Hockey Night in Canada theme song out yet.

The CBC says despite earlier media reports, talks are still continuing. Some inside the CBC speculate that the news release from the publisher is an attempt to apply negotiating pressure.

But, “in the event we can’t reach an agreement,” a CBC spokesperson told InsideTheCBC.com, “We will proceed with a national contest to create a new theme.”

The Toronto agency representing the composer of the theme tune for Hockey Night in Canada said on its web site that the CBC had declined to enter into a new licensing agreement for the song for next NHL season. (The CBC’s licence agreement for the hockey theme song ended with the Stanley Cup final.)

The familiar theme music for Hockey Night in Canada was written in 1968 by Dolores Claman, who was raised in Vancouver. Each use of the song in the past has cost the broadcaster about $500, the company says. A lawsuit filed against the CBC in late 2004 by Claman alleging that the broadcaster was overusing the Hockey Night in Canada theme has not been settled.

Reaction on the blogs is already starting to tumble in:

Influential Vancouver blogger Rebecca Bollwitt says:

There are copyright issues, legal battles etc. but when it boils down to it, I truly think this tune belongs to all Canadians. When I hear the scratchy, “Hello Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland,” intro I get chills. The tune kicks in and you know you’re setting in for a great night of hockey. There’s a even a Facebook Group dedicated to make the HNIC theme the song for medal ceremonies at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

The National Post suggests these replacements:

• We’re Going to Win, Bryan Adams: Yes, Bryan Adams.
• Danielle (She Don’t Care About Hockey), by The Hanson Brothers: The ex-NoMeansNo mix The Ramones and punk. This would be the Strombo of hockey theme songs.
• The Lonely End of the Rink, Tragically Hip: The Hip are to music as hockey is to sport.
• Hit Somebody, Warren Zevon: Perhaps the only American to write a song about hockey. Even though it’s about a Canadian.
• The Ballad of Wendel Clark, Part 1&2, The Rheostatics: It’s easy to see the trajectory of Dave Bidini from hockey-singing rocker to hockey-writing writer.
• Fifty Mission Cap, Tragically HIp: Leafs references? Hockey cards? NHL mythology? This song could only be bested by…
• The Hockey Song, Stompin’ Tom Connors: If you scoff, just watch the video.

More at cbcnews.ca

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 3:05 pm (05 Jun 2008)