TORONTO — Citing a dearth of centre-of-the-universe-centric content, TSN is boosting its coverage of Toronto.
In announcing the move, President Steve Johnson said it was an effort to shine a deserving light on underrepresented stories in sports.
“We do lead every edition of SportsCentre with Maple Leafs content, yes, but we often move on to the other important stories in hockey, then to other sports and markets,” Johnson said in a statement. “By following the Leafs content with other Toronto stories — including the Raptors and Blue Jays, the Argos and Marlies, the Toronto Rock, Toronto Six, Varsity Blues, the Toronto Maple Leafs Intercounty League baseball team, that Frisbee team, the Don Mills Flyers, Woburn Wildcats — we’re giving the people what they want.”
“It’s the biggest city in Canada, and by far the most important. How many people live in Ottawa or Winnipeg anyway, like 50,000? Besides, have you ever watched the Senators or Jets play? Boooorrrringg.”
As well as devoting more time on its flagship program to Toronto, which will largely eliminate the need to ever talk again about small markets like Montreal or unpopular sports like soccer, TSN has plans to develop a brand-new slate of Toronto programming, including documentaries and talk shows.
“There’s really been a shortage of attention that’s been paid to Torontonian issues and stories,” said Johnson. “We intend to have every prominent Toronto-based athlete followed around by a camera 24-7. For the less important ones, we’ll just give each of them a 10-part docuseries, kinda like that Michael Jordan thing on Netflix.”
Some shows reported to be in development include The Toronto Reporters, Raptors Brunch, That’s Toronto, and Sorry About the Interruption.
