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New 24 hour Wx Channel to start in 2014


GaWx

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The Weather Channel succeeded because there really was no other way to get weather info besides the 6 o'clock local news. And if TWC nerded out, that wasn't too big of a deal because it was the only place many nerds could get weather info (unless you were in met school and had access to the fancy computers and stuff). Now any weather nerd can get a plethora of detailed present, historical and forecast/modelling data on the internet, mostly for free, on demand. Why watch TV and hope they show something you care about? A lot of people don't even do that for regular TV any more, preferring Netflix, Hulu and DVDs that fell off the back of a truck. This will be a failure.

The only way they have any chance is if they view themselves as a media company that offers weather and not as a TV channel. That's the Weather Channel's model. 

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The only way they have any chance is if they view themselves as a media company that offers weather and not as a TV channel. That's the Weather Channel's model. 

 

At this point, given the increasing fragmentation of media viewing options, you're completely right.

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This venture won't launch until Fall of next year; if there's no cash flow coming in right now from clients(there is one local sponsor at the moment) how can you survive?

 

I wish Dave well, but he has a long road ahead of him.

 

I think they may have better success posting here :)

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I would do anything to get Neil Frank as the hurricane expert

Neil is very happy enjoying his grand kids, playing golf and occasionally returning to the CBS affiliate in Houston, KHOU where he retired in 2008. Neil just turned 82 in early September and returned for the a special segment September 12th on the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Ike (2008) and the 52nd anniversary of Hurricane Carla (1961) which happened to be his first year as a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center. As Neil would tell you, He is the one man Houstonians DO NOT like to see appearing on their television during Hurricane Season along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast. It usually means there is not good news for Coastal residents.

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  • 3 months later...

a little fuel to the fire of weather competition here. we have the Weather Channel having to lobby a lot harder than normal to get their channel renewed on DirectTv (look at their facebook posts on this lately as well as even on twitter). Probably an issue on the negotiating side more than anything else (probably an issue of pricing per subscriber, as is the case with a lot of negotiations in TV these days). But still, usually I am sure this isn't much of an issue.

 

WeatherNation slowly expanding (now into Buffalo as of a couple of days ago as I understand it), and will be able to make a bigger play on the national scene soon, market by market. So while I'm not sure they are making a play on all of this (haven't heard anything from the people who I know there, but i'm not sure that is their business plan).

 

And with Network Weather wanting to start up soon (still scheduled in the fall), could there maybe some lobbying on their part to start sooner than what they originally predicted? Would someone like DirectTv take such a chance and switch for the right price compared to comcast's TWC/Weather Company?

 

or will this end where people just pay a bit more on the satellite bills as a result?

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If they want ratings have Anthony Watts and James Hanson do a Presidential like debate on Climate Change.

 

Seriously after the first one gets out there then have Jennifer Francis and Judith Curry go at it.

 

By the end of 2014 this new channel will be available on every provider.

 

Do one every 3 months or so.  It's a small price to pay to get the channel available to about everyone.

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the weather channel has become a reality tv network. While they have weather on sometimes, prime time is reality tv. Their shows do revolve around the weather but it isn't the stuff us geeks want. DirecTV is the first company that I know that DirecTV has called them out on their getting away from the weather. With out DirecTV, the channel will not last long.

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the weather channel has become a reality tv network. While they have weather on sometimes, prime time is reality tv. Their shows do revolve around the weather but it isn't the stuff us geeks want. DirecTV is the first company that I know that DirecTV has called them out on their getting away from the weather. With out DirecTV, the channel will not last long.

I was visiting Rochester for a couple of days last month and on The Weather Channel they barely had any weather forecasting on the Saturday evening. It was all documentaries dealing with mountain climbers. The one good show they have is "When Weather Made History".

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the weather channel has become a reality tv network. While they have weather on sometimes, prime time is reality tv. Their shows do revolve around the weather but it isn't the stuff us geeks want. DirecTV is the first company that I know that DirecTV has called them out on their getting away from the weather. With out DirecTV, the channel will not last long.

 

This DirectTV/Weather Channel thing spat could get interesting ........ the Weather Channel is REALLY playing the "public safety is at risk!" card hard here.  Why look --- it's Jim Cantore on the website!

 

http://www.keeptheweatherchannel.com/

 

I really am not one to bash the Weather Channel --- IMO their coverage during big events has improved quite a bit over the last several years.  And frankly quite often the weather is pretty run-of-the-mill across the entire country, so there's no great harm in showing Reality Television at those times.

 

But I still think their playing the "public safety" card here is a bit of hyperbole.  IMO when severe weather/blizzards/hurricanes are threatening/imminent, the general public is much better off getting their info from their local TV stations.

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One of these channels also comes in over the airwaves in the Denver area - the Weather Nation one. I wonder if the new network will also be available?

WeatherNation is the one that right now has a business model, as I understand it, taping the weathercast for local affiliates from studios out near Lake Minnetonka. then they partner with those local stations with weather on their digital channels (around here in the twin cities it's 11-2, Kare-11's secondary digital channel). Them stepping up and doing severe weather coverage as much as TWC would be an interesting situation for Paul Douglas and his crew (capable people over there from my personal experience meeting them, including Tom Clark's daughter Kristin [nepa thing] ).

 

but between WeatherNation, maybe Network Weather comes out with a surprise move to start up early, maybe someone like Accu-Weather tries to pull something off that noone knows about (they have studios and personalities over there, and I have seen ads for more tv personalities lately). And I still say if they wanted to, could maybe someone like Weathernews take a shot out of right field at something like that, given they have TV presences over in Europe and Asia?

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The tweets people are sending into TWC is hilarious. We need the TWC it is a matter of life or death. Really? How did all the people before TWC survive? With all the outlets out there nowadays and hello, the National Weather Service is out there you can get your wx from them too. This whole save TWC is so nauseating, ugh.

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TWC, if they are doing 'weather reality', less people hunting gemstones outdoors, where it *could* rain, and more of the guys in the cheap car (Simon and Justin) chasing torndoes TV shows.


 


Those guys are way lower budget than the Dominator crew, which is a plus for TWC's bottomline.  I can accept them not purposely driving a Hyundai into an EF-3 in exchange for some good chase action and structure shots.


 


And that is what TornadoHunt 2014 is for...


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Lol at The Weather Channel going on the offensive.

 

I loved the fact that the Weather Channel was actually live all 24 hours this weekend (Saturday & Sunday) as opposed to their usual Reality Programming fare.  

 

 

On Saturday, there was a severe threat in the East --- but on Sunday, not really much was happening weather-wise coast-to-coast, other than a rather routine winter storm in the Northwest.

 

 

I have no doubt that if it were not for this DirectTV spat, the Weather Channel would not have been live for most of the day Sunday.  They're putting on appearences.

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WeatherNation is the one that right now has a business model, as I understand it, taping the weathercast for local affiliates from studios out near Lake Minnetonka. then they partner with those local stations with weather on their digital channels (around here in the twin cities it's 11-2, Kare-11's secondary digital channel). Them stepping up and doing severe weather coverage as much as TWC would be an interesting situation for Paul Douglas and his crew (capable people over there from my personal experience meeting them, including Tom Clark's daughter Kristin [nepa thing] ).

 

but between WeatherNation, maybe Network Weather comes out with a surprise move to start up early, maybe someone like Accu-Weather tries to pull something off that noone knows about (they have studios and personalities over there, and I have seen ads for more tv personalities lately). And I still say if they wanted to, could maybe someone like Weathernews take a shot out of right field at something like that, given they have TV presences over in Europe and Asia?

 

 

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/accuweather-announces-the-laun/22055195

 

 

"AccuWeather Announces the Launch of the AccuWeather Channel in Q3 2014"
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AccuWx Incoming! No doubt that AccuWx deliberately waited until the deal would not go through in order to break the news.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/accuweather-announces-the-laun/22055195

 

 

AccuWeather Global Headquarters, January 13, 2014 - AccuWeather is pleased to announce it will launch a 24X7 weather channel, to be known as the AccuWeather Channel, in the third quarter of 2014.

 

AccuWeather had not planned to make the announcement at this time, but decided to accelerate the announcement in light of the controversy that has developed between DIRECTV and The Weather Channel and in order to make the public aware of an additional offering that will be available to them later this year.

 

Edit: Dang it! Ninja'd!

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Wow,  TWC hitting Weather Nation hard. Although weather nation is seldom live,  at the least they are keeping heads above water in the poor climate that is tv in 2014.  They just updated to the use of Omni and Vipir from barons radar, and recently have added city by city weather along with "live" updates every few hours. Maybe the move with Direct Tv will allow them to expand into more live coverage.  

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One more thing,

 

Only 2 weather of the new channels will survive and I will put my money on weather nation and the new accuweather service.  Weather nation has been around first as Weather Cast 2010, (during the last TWC dispute) and in 2011 as weather nation. Each year they expand with better on air graphics and coverage. They must be making money. Accu-weather will survive due to the fact that accu weather has been around for years and have money to use. I have seen no plans on how broadcast weather will operate and how it will get carried on cable. JMO (weather nation had plans for the sub channel and live streaming down circa late 2010 if I recall. 

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It will be nice to have several alternatives to TWC like Accuweather channel, Network Weather Channel. With Weathernation already out there there will be 4 places to get your weather on TV, but Network Weather maybe are being too ambitious for a service that started a year and a half ago but the others may have a good chance at being the alternative to the big gun

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I loved the fact that the Weather Channel was actually live all 24 hours this weekend (Saturday & Sunday) as opposed to their usual Reality Programming fare.  

 

 

On Saturday, there was a severe threat in the East --- but on Sunday, not really much was happening weather-wise coast-to-coast, other than a rather routine winter storm in the Northwest.

 

 

I have no doubt that if it were not for this DirectTV spat, the Weather Channel would not have been live for most of the day Sunday.  They're putting on appearences.

^^^

This

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