TORONTO – Rogers Media’s new national multilingual service OMNI Regional is set to debut Friday with daily national newscasts in Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin, and Punjabi.
The service, which the CRTC approved as a must-carry, basic-service specialty channel, is promising a slate of news and current affairs, lifestyle, and entertainment programming in multiple languages. Programming will be divided in four feeds: Pacific (British Columbia), Prairies (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan), East (Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and PEI), and Quebec, through a partnership with ICI Television.
OMNI News: Cantonese Edition, OMNI News: Italian Edition, OMNI News: Mandarin Edition, and OMNI News: Punjabi Edition will serve up stories of national and regional interest each weekday, and top stories from the day will be available online shortly after broadcast at www.omninews.ca
OMNI Regional will also broadcast 30-minute current affairs talk shows in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Punjabi, with editions produced locally in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver. Focus Cantonese, Focus Mandarin and Focus Punjabi will present engaging discussion on topics that are reflective of their respective regional and language communities, such as provincial and municipal news, healthcare, and business.
“We know from our community partners and viewers that there is an increasing appetite for multilingual news and information programming, and we’re excited to offer this vital service to more Canadians through OMNI Regional,” said director of OMNI, lifestyle & entertainment production Manuel Fonseca, in the news release. “Our commitment through OMNI Regional is to deliver much-needed language newscasts to as many Canadian households as possible, and our mission is to grant every citizen access to quality multicultural and multilingual programming – no matter where they live.”
www.omnitv.ca and www.icitelevision.ca for Quebec
