Poll: Most Canadians support the CBC’s decision on the HNIC theme

June 18, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Poll: Most Canadians support the CBC’s decision on the HNIC theme

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)

	Email This Post
	HNIC Theme, Hockey Night in Canada

8 Responses to “Poll: Most Canadians support the CBC’s decision on the HNIC theme”

Jenuine says:

As always, there are always two or three sides to a story.

A blog exerpt from Delores Claman’s daughter:
“the CBC has had an exclusive media platform on which to air its side of the story.”

So, for anyone interested in her thoughts on the HNIC theme song, and a lengthier comment & factual opinion from Mr. John Ciccone, go to:

http://notpaidbythehour.blogspot.com/2008/06/hockey-themes.html

MM says:

So the client was the Canadian press? An executive from Harris Decima earlier stated that there was no client for this poll – when asked about the suspicious questions and whether it was a cbc funded poll.

The results are pretty amazing considering the cbc’s own poll at the time showed something like 90% against the cbc decision. The majority of news stories and blogs were extremely crititical of the cbc.

Of course for those that work in communications/marketing know full well – semantics are a godsend for spinning results.

You can ask the same question a number of ways and get very different results.

Anyone with half a brain who looks at the questions asked can tell this poll was loaded. What i find intriguing is that Harris Decima apparently with “no client” posed questions in a such a way that this result was practically guaranteed.

I have a feeling only a Patty Hewes type of “Damages” is sufficient to untangle this web.

anonymous says:

That’s the wrong link given above, here’s the right one:

http://madeleinemorris.blogspot.com/2008/06/hockey-theme.html

Brad says:

The CBC is still trying to put a spin on this issue. Go to John Ciccone’s website for a more credible version of this fiasco – http://www.hockeytheme.com