'Emotional' End for Hockey Night in Canada's Punjabi Broadcast, Cancelled After 18 Years
Rogers said audience levels were not strong enough to sustain the Punjabi-language NHL broadcasts long term.
- On Friday, the OMNI TV production Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi announced it will not return after 18 years on air, ending its role sharing stories of South Asian players and families.
- Rogers Sports & Media, the parent company of Sportsnet, stated the decision resulted from audience levels that "aren't strong enough to sustain the production long-term," coinciding with the expiration of a Rogers-CBC NHL sublicensing deal.
- According to Sportsnet, the show averaged 1,500 viewers overall last season, with more than 50 per cent of games averaging less than 1,000 viewers.
- The show featured host Randip Janda, Gurp Sian, Harpreet Pandher, Mantar Bhandal, Taqdeer Thindal, and Avjot Sodhi, while fans and contributors expressed disappointment on social media.
- Launched in 2008, the broadcast became a beloved alternative creating a space for South Asian voices in Canadian sports, with the team expressing gratitude to viewers and production staff who supported the show.
34 Articles
34 Articles
‘Representation matters’: Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi won’t return this fall after 18 years
What to know Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi is ending after 18 years, with the production team announcing it will not return for the new NHL season this fall. The Punjabi-language broadcast gave Punjabi-speaking Canadians accessible Saturday night hockey coverage and highlighted South Asian players, families and fans. Punjabi was the fifth most spoken language in Canada in 2021, with about 942,000 people able to speak it. The program became kn…
'Emotional' end for Hockey Night in Canada's Punjabi broadcast, cancelled after 18 years - Creston Valley Advance
Jagrag Lalli’s lifelong dream of working on Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi broadcast came to a sudden, emotional end on Thursday, Aug. 13. In a conference call, Lalli and more than a dozen other contracted broadcasters and staff were told the Rogers Sportsnet-produced show was cancelled after 18 years of airing NHL games in the Punjabi language. “It was very emotional when we told the news, I’m not going to lie,” said Lalli, who calls Surrey E…
'Emotional' end for Hockey Night in Canada's Punjabi broadcast, cancelled after 18 years - Fort St. James Caledonia Courier
Jagrag Lalli’s lifelong dream of working on Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi broadcast came to a sudden, emotional end on Thursday, Aug. 13. In a conference call, Lalli and more than a dozen other contracted broadcasters and staff were told the Rogers Sportsnet-produced show was cancelled after 18 years of airing NHL games in the Punjabi language. “It was very emotional when we told the news, I’m not going to lie,” said Lalli, who calls Surrey E…
'Emotional' end for Hockey Night in Canada's Punjabi broadcast, cancelled after 18 years - Grand Forks Gazette
Jagrag Lalli’s lifelong dream of working on Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi broadcast came to a sudden, emotional end on Thursday, Aug. 13. In a conference call, Lalli and more than a dozen other contracted broadcasters and staff were told the Rogers Sportsnet-produced show was cancelled after 18 years of airing NHL games in the Punjabi language. “It was very emotional when we told the news, I’m not going to lie,” said Lalli, who calls Surrey E…
'Emotional' end for Hockey Night in Canada's Punjabi broadcast, cancelled after 18 years - Vanderhoof Omineca Express
Jagrag Lalli’s lifelong dream of working on Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi broadcast came to a sudden, emotional end on Thursday, Aug. 13. In a conference call, Lalli and more than a dozen other contracted broadcasters and staff were told the Rogers Sportsnet-produced show was cancelled after 18 years of airing NHL games in the Punjabi language. “It was very emotional when we told the news, I’m not going to lie,” said Lalli, who calls Surrey E…
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