The good news for hockey fans is that the theme to Hockey Night in Canada is not leaving the airwaves. The bad news, in particular for CBC, is that after 40 years it is no longer the theme to its flagship sportscast, and will instead be playing on CTV, TSN and RDS.

CTV announced Monday that it had scooped ‘all rights…in perpetuity’ to the rousing composition — known simply as The Hockey Theme — cutting short efforts by CBC to restart talks with its composer.

Talks between CBC and Copyright Music & Visuals, the Toronto rights shop that represents composer Dolores Claman, ended on Friday with neither side able to agree on a new licensing agreement, at which point the Ceeb announced it would drop the anthem and seek submissions from the public for a replacement, offering a prize of $100,000.

But on Monday, the Ceeb changed its tune, so to speak, and announced it was willing to bring in noted sports lawyer Gord Kirke as a mediator, making what it characterized as a last effort to save the theme and ‘its association with Hockey Night in Canada.’

The offer appears to have been ignored. CTV had been in talks with CMV since end of business on Friday, and by late Monday afternoon, announced it had grabbed The Hockey Theme.

The network says it will use The Hockey Theme on all NHL broadcasts starting this fall on TSN and RDS. It will also be used in CTV’s hockey coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

‘It’s an honor and a privilege to own such a cherished piece of Canadiana,’ said sports president Rick Brace in a statement. ‘It is an iconic tune, embraced by Canadians everywhere.’

Relations had been strained between Claman and CBC for some time, in part because of a still-unresolved lawsuit she filed in 2004. CBC sports boss Scott Moore admitted to The Globe & Mail on Monday that the bad blood may have made a last-minute deal unlikely.

Claman is reported to have been seeking $2.5 million for the music, a difficult price for the CBC to pay because of its limited budget of taxpayer dollars. The details of her deal with CTV have not been disclosed, though in a statement she commended CTV for the ‘tremendous amount of respect’ it paid to her family and the song.

‘The Hockey Theme means so much to Canadians, and we know it’s in good hands with CTV,’ said Claman.

It is not the first time CBC has lost a bidding war with CTV over sports-related rights. The network and its partners missed out on the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics when the CTV side put up a record bid of US$153 million.

Losing the theme deals an enormous cultural blow to CBC, which since 1968 has seen it grow into a musical symbol of Canada on par with the national anthem.

Fans of HNIC were quick to mobilize over the weekend, forming a Facebook group (‘Save the dunt- da-DUNT- da-dunt’) and an online petition with some 8,000 names aimed at CBC CEO Hubert Lacroix, asking him to re-open talks. It remains to be seen how fans will react to it running on CTV instead.

Calls to Copyright Music & Visuals were not returned.