- TSN to develop and produce exclusive content for Canadian Tire and Sport Chek marketing channels -
- Premiere access for CTC retail banners to TSN's exclusive coverage of Canada's leading sports events, including the World Juniors, Grey Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 and TSN's slate of 130+ NHL games -
- Strategic partnership covers all retail banners in the Canadian Tire 'family of companies' -

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TORONTO, May 26, 2014 /CNW/ - Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) today announced a multi-year media, content, and digital partnership with TSN that includes access to the network's suite of assets to develop and produce branded content for CTC's marketing channels. The partnership also includes extensive traditional marketing and advertising opportunities across Canada's #1 sports network.

The new partnership follows the recent announcement of TSN's major expansion to five national feeds beginning in Fall 2014.

Well beyond a traditional advertising partnership, today's announcement includes an agreement for TSN to develop and produce original and relevant content for CTC's marketing channels, as well as exclusive content to be distributed through TSN broadcasts and through the network's industry-leading digital platforms: TSN.ca, TSN GO, and TSN BarDown at BarDown.com.

The new digital content produced by TSN will bring to life CTC's existing sports and athlete sponsorships, deliver the best sports analysis from TSN's roster of Insiders and experts, and offer access to Canada's leading sports events. The increasing volume of new digital content will be distributed through CTC's marketing channels, including traditional flyers, new digital flyers, social media channels, online advertising, in-store traditional and digital displays, and employee-facing communications.

The new partnership also includes extensive 'traditional' broadcast access to TSN's exclusive coverage of Canada's leading sports events, including the upcoming World Juniors, Grey Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 and TSN's slate of 130+ NHL games, as well as exposure during SportsCentre, Canada's leading source for sports news, and TSN's original hockey programming.

As part of the partnership, RDS - Canada's #1 French specialty sports network - will provide extensive French-language support, with CTC content to be integrated across the network's slate of industry-leading platforms including RDS, RDS2, RDS Info, RDS.ca, and RDS GO. RDS, the official broadcaster of the Montreal Canadiens, will also incorporate CTC content throughout its comprehensive coverage of the Habs. 

"We are completely re-engineering the nature of our media partnerships," said Duncan Fulton, Senior Vice President at Canadian Tire Corporation. "We still deeply value access to television broadcasts that draw large audiences, but increasingly we're facing the need to produce unique and relevant content for our many digital and mobile channels."

"Our customers are rapidly changing their expectation of where and how we interact with them. The content we share on Facebook has to be different than Twitter or YouTube or TSN.ca or what you see on our digital screens in our stores. TSN is an expert in sports content creation in Canada and they will help us rapidly scale our capabilities to continue to inspire our customers and employees," concluded Fulton.

"This is certainly one of the most strategic advertising partnerships in TSN's history," said Stewart Johnston, President of TSN. "We're very proud to partner with such an iconic Canadian brand in sports. There is also a natural cultural alignment between Canadian Tire's and TSN's executive teams. We all share the same deep commitment to encouraging kids to get into sports and the importance of lifelong healthy and active living."

"We loved the vision of creating a partnership that goes well beyond traditional or digital advertising. It's wonderful to work with Canadian Tire and be a part of their content strategy. This is a powerful extension for TSN's brand, with our original content reaching millions of Canadian Tire customers across their online, mobile, and in-store marketing channels every day," concluded Johnston.

The partnership covers all the retail banners in the Canadian Tire family of companies - which includes Canadian Tire, Mark's, Sport Chek, Sports Experts, National Sports, Pro Hockey Life, Atmosphere, PartSource, Gas+, Canadian Tire Financial services and Jumpstart, the company's nationally registered charity aimed at helping families with financial difficulties get their kids into organized sports and activities.

The multi-million dollar partnership is being funded by an optimization and reallocation of existing CTC marketing and advertising budgets.

About Canadian Tire
Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited, (TSX:CTC.A) (TSX:CTC) or "CTC," is a family of businesses that includes a retail segment, a financial services division, CT REIT and Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, CTC's affiliated national charity that is dedicated to removing financial barriers so kids across Canada can participate in sports and physical activities.  Our retail business is led by Canadian Tire, which was founded in 1922 and provides Canadians with products for life in Canada across its Living, Playing, Fixing, Automotive and Seasonal categories. PartSource and Gas+ are key parts of the Canadian Tire network. The retail segment also includes Mark's, a leading source for casual and industrial wear, and FGL Sports (Sport Chek, Hockey Experts, Sports Experts, National Sports, Intersport, Pro Hockey Life and Atmosphere), which offers the best active wear brands. The nearly 1,700 retail and gasoline outlets are supported and strengthened by our Financial Services division and the approximately tens of thousands of people employed across the Company. For more information, visit Corp.CanadianTire.ca. 

About TSN
TSN is Canada's Sports Leader and #1 specialty network. With a broad portfolio of multimedia sports assets, TSN delivers world-class content across industry-leading platforms including TSN2, TSN.ca, TSN GO, and TSN Radio. Official broadcaster of the Grey Cup, IIHF World Junior Championship and FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015, TSN's slate of live sports coverage includes NHL, CFL, NFL, NBA, MLS, Season of Champions Curling, UEFA Euro 2016, MLB, Barclays Premier League, Golf's Majors, NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Canadian Tire Series, F1, Grand Slam Tennis, NCAA March Madness, and Skate Canada events. TSN is a division of Bell Media, which is part of BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada's largest communications company.

SOURCE TSN