The upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver will be broadcast in 22 languages, with sports commentary and play-by-play analysis to be delivered in a wide range of tongues that include Mandarin, Bangla, Ukrainian, the aboriginal language of Mechif and South Asia's Gujarati.

Keith Pelley, president of the broadcast consortium in charge of the coverage, says unprecedented efforts are underway to represent Canada's diversity.

"The demand for coverage of these Games is certainly at an all-time high and our philosophy has always been, 'You can watch what you want, when you want and how you want,' and you might now be able to add, 'in whatever language you want,"' Pelley told The Canadian Press.

"These languages are certainly representative of Canada's multicultural diversity and we're pretty excited about being able to deliver such comprehensive coverage."

Multilingual commentators and analysts will be drawn from a consortium of media outlets that include the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Asian Television Network and OMNI Television.

Play-by-play rookies

The consortium was to officially announce the details Monday, but in an interview with The Canadian Press, Pelley outlined an ambitious plan that in many cases will involve rookie broadcasters attempting sports play-by-play for the first time.

"APTN, I know, have taken in a lot of people in their communities who have never been broadcasters before and now have trained them," he notes, adding that training sessions were to continue later this month in Winnipeg. "This is their first opportunity as a broadcaster. It's really neat."

Olympic coverage by the aboriginal network will feature a mix of English, French and eight aboriginal languages. They include Cree, Dene, Inuktitut, Mechif, Mi'Kmaq, Mohawk, Ojibway and Oji-Cree.

ATN, billed as Canada's largest South Asian broadcaster, will cover the Games across seven specialty channels and in six languages including Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Urdu.

The multicultural OMNI Television, with five stations in British Columbia, Calgary, Edmonton and Ontario, plans coverage in seven languages including Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi and Ukrainian.

Additional French-language coverage will come from the TV network TQS, and the specialty services Reseau des sports (RDS) and Reseau info sport (RIS).

German, Spanish omitted

But despite the unusual breadth, Pelley admitted there are notable omissions. They include German and Spanish, Canada's fifth- and seventh-most common tongues according to the 2006 census.

Pelley, who heads a media consortium led by CTV and Rogers Media, said the scope of multilingual coverage was determined by APTN, ATN and OMNI, which crafted their plans based on the communities they served and the terms of their broadcast licences.

"We went to all three of our partners and looked at it and said, 'You know your audience best, you know your languages best, you know your sports best. It's not for us to make that [decision],' " Pelley said.

"I know that I think Spanish will play a bigger role in [the 2012] London [Olympic Games] but they looked at this and these are the languages that they felt was most appropriate for the sports at this time."

OMNI, which broadcasts Spanish and German-language shows in certain markets, said coverage plans were determined by the makeup of its viewers.

"OMNI chose the languages based on the key community groups currently reflected on our schedule," the over-the-air channel said in a statement.

"The choice of these languages also leverages OMNI's existing talent, writers and producers for the coverage of the Games."

Coverage tailored to communities

Not every Olympic sport will get multilingual coverage. However, each of the 22 languages will be paired with a sport that holds the most appeal for the community involved, said Pelley.

For instance, the popularity of Alpine sports in Italy means skiing will most likely be covered in Italian, while China's fascination with figure skating and curling make the sport a likely candidate for Cantonese coverage. In other cases, the sheer novelty of certain cold-weather sports will be enough to justify coverage for some — Tamil speakers, for example, will be able to watch the fast-paced sledding sport of skeleton in their native tongue, Pelley said.

A schedule detailing which sports will be handled in which language will be announced in early January. Pelley said outlets will focus on providing live, prime-time coverage where possible.

Broadcasters speaking 13 languages will cover the opening ceremony when the Games kick off Feb. 12, 2010.