CBC Axes Punjabi Broadcasts of Hockey Night

The broadcaster says it can't afford to show games in Punjabi without corporate support.

Hockey Night in Canada's beloved broadcasts in Punjabi will not be aired again, as CBC was unable to find a sponsor willing to pay for the rights to the only-in-Canada program. Hockey games have been broadcast weekly in Punjabi since 2008, when the public broadcaster decided to give Harnarayan Singh and Amarinder Singh a shot at calling games in the fourth-most spoken language in Canada. Over the next three seasons, broadcasts grew to be particularly popular in the Vancouver area, which is home to a large Sikh population that has embraced the Vancouver Canucks, despite the team's superhuman ability to choke when it matters most.