The fall lineup for Rogers TV in Toronto, unveiled Thursday, is to stress a strong, local focus, as the community channel says goodbye to a host of long-running general fare.

The highlights of the new programming from September include: Real Wedding Videos, a showcase of local weddings; The Film Student, a look at how locally produced short films are made; a portrait of local charities in Toronto Cares; and the sex education series Sex @ 11.

Rogers TV, now in its 40th year, is also adding to its local sports coverage with minor and professional hockey game telecasts, including 22 Toronto Marlies’ games, and Game Day, a broadcast of high school sporting events.

All the new shows will be produced in-house, and aim to be relevant to local cable viewers.

To make way for 11 new shows, the channel at the end of August will close the book on Carolyn Weaver’s long-running literary review series Fine Print and Reel to Real, the weekly film critics forum.

Those cancellations are widely judged a blow to the publicity-starved Canadian film and book industries.

Rogers TV programmers argue the long-running shows were aimed at a broad audience, whereas the community channel has adopted a new ‘hyper-local’ mandate.

‘We’re strengthening our commitment to local matters and putting the spotlight back on Toronto,’ Rogers TV VP Colette Watson explained.

Playback Daily first reported on the Rogers TV local makeover on July 12 with news that a turf war at the Toronto International Film Festival had led in part to the cancellation of the Reel to Real show, most recently hosted by Geoff Pevere and Richard Crouse, after 16 years on air.

The move came a year after Reel to Real stopped carrying its signature round-the-clock TIFF coverage of press conferences and film reviews, follwing the festival’s sponsorship deal with Rogers rival Bell Canada.

At the time, Rogers TV executives were keen to stress that Reel to Real fading to black was part of a larger move by the community channel to local programming.