SportsBaseball

Canadian TV channel is broadcasting Blue Jays games in Tagalog

Harman Dayal
Harman Dayal
|
Aug 14 2018, 2:19 am
Canadian TV channel is broadcasting Blue Jays games in Tagalog

OMNI Television is bringing baseball to the Filipino community.

Sunday broadcasts of Toronto Blue Jays games will be available in Tagalog on OMNI Television for the rest of the Major League Baseball season.

Using Sportsnet’s feed, its first broadcast aired on August 5th featuring famous Filipino sportscaster Mara Aquino as host, Charles de Torres as the play-by-play announcer, and Mike Cruz as the colour commentator.

The program is dubbed Toronto Blue Jays: Pinoy Edition and follows in the footsteps of the Punjabi edition of Hockey Night in Canada as one of OMNI’s many initiatives to bring Canadian culture to multilingual ethnic viewers. Like Hockey Night Punjabi, the play-by-play broadcasters call the game from a studio.

There are seven more games scheduled to air in Tagalog:

  • Sun, Aug 19: Toronto @ New York Yankees (1 pm ET / 10 am PT)
  • Sun, Aug 26: Philadelphia Phillies @ Toronto (1 pm ET / 10 am PT)
  • Sun, Sep 2: Toronto @ Miami Marlins (1 pm ET / 10 am PT)
  • Sun, Sep 9: Cleveland Indians @ Toronto (1 pm ET / 10 am PT)
  • Sun, Sep 16: Toronto @ New York Yankees (1 pm ET / 10 am PT)
  • Sun, Sep 23: Tampa Bay Rays @ Toronto (1 pm ET / 10 am PT)
  • Sun, Sep 30: Toronto @ Tampa Bay Rays (3 pm ET / 12 pm PT)

Baseball isn’t as popular as other sports like basketball and boxing in the Philippines, but it is steadily growing in the Filipino community.

Another factor working in the program’s favour is that Tagalog is the fastest growing non-official language in Canada – growing at a rate of 35% since 2011.

Viewership numbers will likely determine the program’s future beyond this season.

So far, it looks like fans are enjoying it:

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