As part of Canadian Tire Corporation’s multi-year media, content and digital partnership with TSN announced last year, sports retailer Sport Chek is partnering with the Bell Media specialty channel to feature a broadcast-ready studio inside its flagship store at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Square.
Overlooking the square from the store’s second floor, the Sport Chek Studio was built in collaboration with TSN. The state-of-the-art facility will enable consumers to experience live segments and broadcast interviews with athletes, sports personnel and industry experts as they shop.
The first segment from the store aired on Tuesday’s editions of TSN’s sports highlight show Sportscentre, with basketball-related content in advance of Thursday’s NBA draft.
The studio includes a nine-foot broadcast desk equipped with studio lighting, microphones and cameras; a sports ticker with 11 LED panels; a full colour LED system and a 48-inch TV screen.
In addition to Sportscentre, broadcasts from the studio will be featured in Leafs Lunch and pre and post-game segments for both the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Frederick Lecoq, senior vice-president of marketing for Sport Chek owner FGL Sports, said that the studio enables it to provide customers with a “deeper immersion” in the sports environment. “There is no other retail store in this country where fans can get this authentic experience, and we’re excited to be the first to bring this to Canadians,” he said in a release.
CTC and Sport Chek announced their content partnership last year, with senior vice-president Duncan Fulton telling Marketing at the time that sports is essential to the company as both a business and a brand builder, and is transforming the company culture.
