OMNI TELEVISION BRINGS LINSANITY TO CANADIANS WITH A LIVE NATIONAL MANDARIN BROADCAST
OF THE TORONTO RAPTORS VS THE NEW YORK KNICKS, MARCH 23
- Former Chinese national basketball team player and veteran basketball commentator Weiping Zhang to call play-by-play in Mandarin -
- NBA superstar Jeremy Lin unleashes Linsanity on Toronto when the New York Knicks battle the Toronto Raptors -
(TORONTO – March 19, 2012) OMNI Television hits the court with exclusive, national Mandarin-language coverage of the New York Knicks taking on the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre on Friday, March 23 at 7pm ET. The game will broadcast live on OMNI.2 at 7pm ET, OMNI Alberta at 5pm MT and OMNI BC at 4pm PT.
To anchor OMNI Television’s exclusive broadcast, China’s premier sports commentator Weiping Zhang takes to the broadcast booth to call the play-by-play in Mandarin. Zhang, a former player with China’s national basketball team, has been commentating for the past 15 years, having covered the NBA All-Star game, Asian Basketball Championships, World Basketball Championships, and the NBA finals. Sportsnet ONE will also be providing English-language coverage of the game at 7pm ET on March 23.
“The level of enthusiasm for Jeremy Lin from the Chinese and Taiwanese communities has been extraordinary over the past month, and it’s clear that his Cinderella story and stellar performances are inspiring youth in these communities across Canada,” said Madeline Zinak, National Vice-President, OMNI Television.
Members of Toronto’s Chinese community embraced Lin as their own, when the Knicks visited the Toronto Raptors last month, with groups from these communities purchasing tickets to the game, helping to make it a rare sold-out game for the Raptors.
An official broadcast partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games, OMNI Television is Canada’s premier broadcaster for multilingual sports coverage including the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, 1998 World Cup France, and the 1994 World Cup USA.
About Weiping Zhang:
Weiping Zhang hails from China and has been actively involved with Chinese basketball as a former player, coach and commentator for over 30 years. Zhang’s career as a player spans almost a decade, having played as a power forward for the Chinese national basketball team, helping them to win three straight gold medals in the 1975, 1977 and 1979 Asian Basketball Championships. Zhang was also recognized as the best forward in Asia during his time playing. Since retiring as a player, Zhang has coached elite Chinese youth basketball programs where he discovered and developed young players like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian. He started his commentating career with China’s CCTV5 in the late 1990s covering NBA and CBA regular season and play-off games. Zhang speaks both Chinese and English.
About OMNI Television
OMNI™ is a free, over-the-air multilingual/multicultural television system committed to reflecting Canada's diversity by delivering an array of ethnocultural programming, serving multiple language communities. With five television stations -- in BC; Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton) and Ontario (OMNI.1 and OMNI.2) - OMNI has a combined reach to 16.5 million households in major market areas. In addition to weeknight newscasts and weekly community magazine programs, OMNI is also home to well-known International series and films, including Bollywood Movies, Asian Cinema, Italian and Portuguese telenovelas. OMNITelevision is a part of Rogers Broadcasting Limited., a division of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX: RCI and NYSE: RCI) which is a diversified Canadian communications and media company. For more information visit www.OMNItv.ca
For more information, please contact:
Meghan Hardy, OMNI Television, 416.764.3197, meghan.hardy@rci.rogers.com
Sónia Brum, OMNI Television, 416.764.3194, sonia.brum@rci.rogers.com
