R&B singer Rihanna’s record label Tuesday said it has refused to license a song to CBS for its “Thursday Night Football” program after the TV network chose not to use the song in its season opener because it was focused on the NFL’s domestic violence scandal.

    The Roc Nation label made its announcement after Rihanna, who was assaulted by singer and then-boyfriend Chris Brown on the eve of the 2009 Grammy Awards, railed against CBS on Twitter for scrapping her featured part in rapper Jay Z’s “Run This Town” along with other planned content.

    “Roc Nation made the decision to not grant the song’s usage,” Jay Z’s Roc Nation label said in a statement.

    CBS said earlier Tuesday it will open the show with original theme music instead of Rihanna’s singing.

    The CBS Corp.-owned network, which won the rights to broadcast NFL games in primetime Thursdays this season, covered the indefinite suspension of former Ravens running back Ray Rice for domestic abuse and an essay on domestic violence among other content instead of Rihanna’s singing as part of its planned opening segment last week.

    Neither CBS nor Rihanna directly acknowledged that the singer’s past history as a victim of domestic violence played a role in the decision.

    The dispute between Rihanna and CBS intensified when the 26-year-old Barbadian singer rebuked the network on Twitter.

    “CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday,” the Grammy winner said, punctuating the Tweet to her 37.2 million followers with an expletive. “Y’all are sad for penalizing me for this.”

    CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said last week that the change in the broadcast reflected events. “We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone coverage,” he said. (SD-Agencies)