CALGARY — Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi Edition has been cancelled after 18 years of broadcasting hockey to Canada's South Asian community.The cancellation comes after CBC announced that Hockey Night in Canada will no longer be available on their free-to-air platform and will now continue behind a paywall on Sportsnet."A decision has been made that Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi will not be returning. For 18 years, this show brought our community closer to the game we love. It shared the stories of South Asian players and families and created a space that was truly unique in Canadian sports," a statement from the channel's Twitter account reads..The subsequent cancellation of the Punjabi version of the show comes amid the takeover of the brand by Sportsnet, a Rogers Media-owned company.This shuttering is one of a multitude of recent local and community-oriented outlets that have gotten the chop after the Rogers $5 billion takeover of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays.Notably, Rogers recently shut down a number of local radio stations, including two stations in Calgary, 660 NewsRadio and 960 The Fan.The decision to shut down HNiC in Punjabi has garnered reactions from those who saw the program as one of the best vehicles for "growing the game" in Canada's Punjabi population."As a descendant of Pakistani immigrants born in Canada, even though I don’t speak Punjabi, HNIC Punjabi was special to me because I got to see people that looked like me be involved in the sport of hockey. It helped fuel my love for the game," said one commenter."Shame to see. Helped tap into an emerging fanbase for the game. I guess now that the CBC is out of the mix, even more decisions will be about immediate dividends instead of the long run," wrote another.
