It’s better to do really well with a passionate audience than it is to be all things to all people, especially in cable.”Ĭlark said the channel has started moving in that direction, adding a half-hour science-oriented show called “WX Geeks.” More scientific explanations are being weaved into regular coverage during the day.ĭerek Baine, a senior analyst for media research firm SNL Kagan, said the channel is taking a smart course. People can choose the best of everything. “Brands that attempt to be Swiss Army knives - that have something for everybody - are failing,” he said. It tried in recent years by adding some climate-related reality series that looked as if they could have aired on outlets such as A&E or Discovery, but cut back on that programming as part of its new deal with DirecTV.Ĭlark believes the Weather Channel is better off trying to connect with the weather enthusiast who wants to get deeper into science and issues related to the physical world. There are even advertisers such as State Farm, Duracell and Home Depot that are ready with spots to air in the channel’s disaster coverage.īut getting viewers to feel passionate about the Weather Channel during fair weather is a challenge. Viewership, which typically averages around 200,000 during the day, rose 11% in the first quarter of 2015 from a year earlier, thanks to brutal winter conditions in much of the U.S. The Weather Channel has always touted its role in public safety, providing continuous national coverage of storms and extreme weather. The Weather Channel was off DirecTV for three months before two sides agreed to terms. for an increase in fees to carry the Weather Channel, on the grounds that its content was widely available elsewhere. The nation’s largest subscription video service provider refused to meet demands by the Weather Co. The privately held company, a consortium of NBCUniversal and private equity groups Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, saw the relevance of its 33-year-old cable channel come into serious question last year during a standoff with DirecTV. “The channel was one of the most valuable assets in cable before the iPhone was invented,” Zimmett noted. also owns, the most visited Internet site for forecast information. The Weather Underground show is the channel’s latest bid to prove its value in an age when temperatures and forecasts are available in an instant on the Internet and mobile devices. The site was founded by several University of Michigan students in 1993, taking their name from the left-wing radical organization formed in the late 1960s.īut the weather geeks who populate Weather Underground are the viewers the Weather Channel wants to attract with its new show. They feared a corporate takeover of the San Francisco-based entity - which grew through a network of devoted followers supplying data from across the country - would make Weather Underground more commercial and less sophisticated. The Weather Co., the Weather Channel’s parent, acquired Weather Underground in 2012, much to the chagrin of the site’s fans who love its grass-roots approach to forecasting. The cable channel will soon announce the mid-August launch of a daily two-hour live show that taps into the resources and quirky spirit of Weather Underground, the website for meteorological enthusiasts obsessive enough to own personal forecast stations. The Weather Channel is looking to get its geek on.
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