CBC, or Canadian Broasting Corp, has just made what I think can only be called the worst branding mistake ever with regards to the Hockey Song.  For 40 years the CBC hockey broadcasts have used the Hockey Song and this week they let it slip away to their competition.  I can’t think of a bigger branding mistake… Ever!

I can’t think of another TV broadcast, or show that has ever let its theme song slide to the competition.  Worst yet, the song has been in use all year up until 2 weeks ago with the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  If the CBC wasn’t intending to renew the license they should have stopped using it awhile ago and worked on a replacement plan.  Instead they just now launched a contest to find a replacement with a $100,000 prize, in the same week that CTV announced they’ve listened the Hockey Song.

I don’t know much about the management of the CBC, or their sports budgets or the deal that proposed for the rights to the song.  Everyone I’ve met from the CBC has been intelligent and with good intentions but I don’t understand how they let this happen.   Its  hard to believe that they can sign Don Cherry to a multi-year deal but let their theme song  go without renewal.  What a disaster…