Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN), Canada's largest South Asian broadcaster and a leading multicultural media company, has reiterated its call for equitable access to any federal financial support being made available to Canada's broadcasting sector. Prior to the recent announcement of the federal government's proposed $600 million support initiative for broadcasters, ATN had already written to the Prime Minister of Canada, outlining the significant challenges facing independent multicultural broadcasters and requesting meaningful financial assistance to help preserve local multicultural media services across Canada. ATN is hoping to get a positive response from the Prime Minister's Office.
Decades of Investment in Multicultural Programming
For more than four decades, ATN has invested several million dollars in serving Canada's diverse South Asian communities by providing multilingual news and current affairs, entertainment, sports, and cultural programming while creating over 120 full-time Canadian jobs and supporting multicultural storytelling. The company operates over 50 specialty television channels, including flagship ATN-HD general interest service, seven other general interest channels, three sports channels, seven news channels, five Bollywood movie channels, and a variety of music, lifestyle, and regional language channels covering Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati, and Marathi.
Call for Inclusive and Transparent Funding
“Independent multicultural broadcasters play a vital role in ensuring that Canada’s diverse communities remain informed, connected, and represented,” said Dr. Shan Chandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN. “As the broadcasting industry continues to face unprecedented economic and structural challenges, it is essential that any government support be distributed fairly and recognizes the unique contribution made by independent multicultural broadcasters—in addition to the large conventional media companies.” ATN believes that any public funding initiative should be inclusive, transparent, and accessible to broadcasters of all sizes that provide meaningful public service and Canadian programming.
ATN's Role in Canadian Broadcasting
ATN has been a pioneer in the production of multicultural television programming in Canada and has programming alliances with leading international broadcasters like Sony Entertainment Television, Disney/Reliance-JioStar, CNN News 18, Zee Network, Times Television, B4U, NDTV (Good Times), Republic TV, ABP News Network, Jaya TV, ARY, and FOOD FOOD Network. The company is also a pioneer broadcaster of cricket in Canada, holding exclusive broadcast rights for various international cricket boards. ATN was the first to bring the ICC World Cup of Cricket live across Canada in 1987 and has since exclusively broadcast a large number of Test matches, One Day Internationals, limited over T-20 games including the IPL and various T-10 leagues. ATN’s content is also available on Amazon Prime in the USA and UK. The company has its own state-of-the-art production and digital broadcast facilities, which have been used by production companies associated with Netflix, Amazon, CBC, and others. ATN channels are distributed through TELUS, Rogers, BELL, Cogeco, MTS, Eastlink, FUBO, and Canadian cable systems alliance.
Engagement with Government
The company looks forward to engaging with the Government of Canada and relevant stakeholders to ensure that multicultural broadcasters are fully considered as part of any support framework designed to strengthen Canada’s broadcasting ecosystem.
