TORONTO – Canada’s diverse language communities will now have more access to vital news and information programming when OMNI Regional, which launched last Friday, Sept. 1 across the country. Offered nationally on all digital basic television packages, OMNI Regional will deliver a vibrant slate of news and current affairs, lifestyle, and entertainment programming in multiple languages.
The language newscasts – OMNI News: Cantonese Edition, OMNI News: Italian Edition, OMNI News: Mandarin Edition, and OMNI News: Punjabi Edition – will bring viewers stories of national and regional interest each day of the week. Complementing the televised newscasts, top stories from the day will be available online shortly after broadcast at www.omninews.ca.
“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 Manuel Fonseca, Director, OMNI, Lifestyle & Entertainment Production, Rogers Media. “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.”
Rounding out the news and information programming, 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 truly reflective of their respective regional and language communities, such as provincial and municipal news, healthcare, and business.
To better serve Quebec’s diverse multilingual communities, as previously announced, Rogers Media has partnered with independent ethnic broadcaster ICI Television to offer local information, lifestyle and entertainment programming on the channel, including programming in French and English. Referred to as ICI Television in Quebec, the channel will also broadcast OMNI’s daily, national newscasts in Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin, and Punjabi.
About OMNI
OMNI™ is Canada’s only multilingual and multicultural television broadcaster, offering a wide range of ethnocultural and third language programming to the country’s diverse communities. OMNI is available in more than 11 million households across Canada through its five local over-the-air television stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto (OMNI.1 and OMNI.2) and its national speciality channel – OMNI Regional, which is comprised of four regional channels and is offered as part of all digital basic television packages throughout the country. In Quebec OMNI Regional has partnered with independent ethnic broadcaster, ICI Television, to offer French-language local programming to the province’s ethnic communities. OMNI offers a wide range of locally produced and acquired programming, including daily national news in Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin and Punjabi, current affairs programming and popular entertainment programming including Bollywood movies, Asian cinema, and Italian and Portuguese telenovelas. OMNI is part of Rogers Media Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX: RCI and
