TORONTO — Having been given CRTC approval in May to operate its national, multicultural OMNI Regional service as a must-carry, basic-service specialty channel, Rogers Media is building up the channel’s multilingual news content, with daily news in Mandarin and Cantonese scheduled to begin September 1.
A Rogers Media spokesperson has told Cartt.ca that the company has reached a service agreement with Fairchild Television to provide studio and production support for 30-minute daily national news broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese. Under the editorial direction of Rogers Media, these half-hour news broadcasts will be produced by Fairchild TV and televised exclusively on the new national OMNI Regional channel.
The Mandarin and Cantonese national newscasts will join OMNI Regional’s current affairs series in these languages, offering viewers in-depth editorial and analysis that is locally reflective of Canada’s diverse communities, the Rogers Media spokesperson said.
In addition, the OMNI Regional channel will also offer national newscasts in Punjabi and Italian, according to the spokesperson. Full programming details will be announced in the coming weeks.
In May, the CRTC approved a three-year licence for OMNI Regional to operate as a must-carry, multicultural specialty service featuring a mix of news, current affairs, lifestyle and entertainment programming. The CRTC made its decision after a protracted debate on the matter in the industry (which Cartt.ca wrote about here, here and here) and despite the early objections of numerous other ethnic broadcasters, including Fairchild TV.
Coinciding with its approval of OMNI Regional’s three-year licence in May, the CRTC also issued a competitive call for applications for a new television service offering national, multilingual and multi-ethnic programming including news and information. If licensed, this service would receive mandatory distribution on the digital basic service starting in 2020, says the CRTC.
