IMO, not much of a loss.
Verizon FiOS drops The Weather Channel, picks up AccuWeather (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/03/10/verizon-fios-drops-the-weather-channel-picks-up-accuweather/)
QuoteVerizon FiOS has dropped The Weather Channel from its lineup, a change that the cable provider announced in an e-mail to its subscribers on Tuesday morning.
QuoteAccording to the e-mail, the channel's carriage agreement with Verizon expired and has not been renewed. Verizon cites the changing habits of consumers in their reasoning for allowing the agreement to expire. "In today's environment, customers are increasingly accessing weather information not only from their TV but from a variety of online sources and apps," Verizon writes in the announcement.
QuoteBut despite the trend toward digital in the consumption of weather information, Verizon is not getting rid of TV weather completely. In the same statement, they announced that they have launched the AccuWeather Network and have added WeatherBug to the lineup.
I believe the Weather Channel is owned in part by Comcast, so I don't think you'll see that company drop them.
At least on my cable system, Channel 101 is basically a constant Weather on the 8's: I get my local weather, and that's it. I don't care about Weather Events in History, or How Weather Effects You, or whatever programming they are airing. Now that two major systems have dropped the Weather Channel, I wonder if they're going to continue their line of "We give people what they want", because there's a helluva lot of channels out there that appear to be doing it a lot better.
People still wait to watch tornado movies the weather forecast on cable TV?
Quote from: jeffandnicole on March 10, 2015, 12:09:17 PM
I believe the Weather Channel is owned in part by Comcast, so I don't think you'll see that company drop them.
Good point.
Though there are a lot of people out there (like me) that will go without cable TV and Internet service before they will pay any money to Comcast.
Verizon's announcement could practically be a verbatim repeat of DirecTV's press release when they dropped The Weather Channel a little over a year ago. My understanding is that a demand for an increase in licensing fees was the root cause of the DirecTV dispute, and as soon as The Weather Channel eased off their demands (and agreed to focus more on weather–imagine that), DirecTV added them back to their lineup. I don't know if the same issue is at play here.
In today's media environment, where people can get current weather instantly on a weather app, website, or a myriad of widgets and crawls plastered everywhere (all of which The Weather Channel organization has extended to quite well), I don't think many people are tuning to their cable channel simply to find out whether they should wear a jacket today. But I think there are people who want to listen to a meteorologist explain why it might be cold next week because of an oncoming low pressure front. It's a small group of people to be sure, but that niche is there.
But when they abandon that niche and run almost completely unrelated reality programming, like From the Edge with Peter Lik or Highway through Hell, the whole premise falls apart.
It sounds like when DirecTV dropped them, they gave the Weather Channel advanced notice. So instead of people getting the weather (which they mostly want), or getting loosely-related-to-weather programming (which many people don't want), we instead were treated to 24/7 harassment of why DirecTV needed to keep the Weather Channel (which irritated nearly everyone).
Verizon decided to cut out TWC's chance to whine. They basically sent a text message to that bothersome boyfriend, saying "Good Morning. BTW, We're thru. You want your stuff? It's on the front lawn. And if I find those topless pics of me on the internet, they'll be hell to pay".
When directv dropped TWC it added The Weather Network (I believe that's the name, not near my tv.) Then when TWC came back, they kept both stations on adjacent channels in a fantastic troll move.
Quote from: 6a on March 10, 2015, 07:00:09 PM
When directv dropped TWC it added The Weather Network (I believe that's the name, not near my tv.) Then when TWC came back, they kept both stations on adjacent channels in a fantastic troll move.
Yep, it's called WeatherNation and its on channel 361, TWC on channel 362. Brilliant move on DirecTv's part.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on March 10, 2015, 02:59:14 PM
Verizon decided to cut out TWC's chance to whine. They basically sent a text message to that bothersome boyfriend, saying "Good Morning. BTW, We're thru. You want your stuff? It's on the front lawn. And if I find those topless pics of me on the internet, they'll be hell to pay".
;-)
Quote from: 6a on March 10, 2015, 07:00:09 PM
When directv dropped TWC it added The Weather Network (I believe that's the name, not near my tv.) Then when TWC came back, they kept both stations on adjacent channels in a fantastic troll move.
Verizon put the Accuweather channel on 619, the same channel that had been occupied by the Weather Channel for as long as I have Verizon FiOS TV.
It looks a fair amount like the "classic" Weather Channel, though the music is a little bit edgier.
One other thing - they keep showing the weather information on the left while commercials (the usual bogus cable TV commercials) air (seems they "roll" though media markets including Albany, Boston, Providence, White Plains, Islip, New York, Miami, Tampa, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix and more (I stopped watching at Phoenix)).
Quote from: briantroutman on March 10, 2015, 02:21:13 PM
But I think there are people who want to listen to a meteorologist explain why it might be cold next week because of an oncoming low pressure front. It's a small group of people to be sure, but that niche is there.
Cable TV is all about niche programming.
Weather Channel sucks in general. Ever since NBC took over, they have been more concerned about ratings than informing people of approaching severe weather. Many examples I can recall where they'd be showing something about GOLD RUSHING :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: when a big severe outbreak is going on across the country. Just think of the lawsuits if they did something like this with Katrina, Sandy, El Reno and Moore tornado outbreaks, and the Groundhog Blizzard amongst other major weather events....
AccuWeather is somewhat better, but I've really enjoyed watching WeatherNation. If you want TWC before NBC, WeatherNation is that
What annoys me about this is that once you are under contract with Verizon FIOS they can do whatever they want to and you are locked in with them. When you sign up, you pick a package, e.g. "Extreme", based upon its content and price. After that, Verizon FIOS can make any changes to the package, except raise the price, and you can't do anything about it. So, in effect you are signing up to get the "Extreme" package however Verizon FIOS chooses to define it. You are buying a "pig in a poke".
Yesterday I not only lost The Weather Channel, but last night they sent me an e-mail to tell me that three college sport channels are being removed from my package. I've never watched those channels but still my package was modified/reduced and I received no compensation, i.e.no refund nor no price reduction. And, this isn't the first time they've dropped channels from my package.
It should be that if Verizon FIOS modifies my package, my contract is terminated.
When my contract ends, i'll "cut the cord", unless i decide to pay the termination fee and cancel them before then.
Quote from: cpzilliacus on March 11, 2015, 09:37:05 AM
Quote from: briantroutman on March 10, 2015, 02:21:13 PM
But I think there are people who want to listen to a meteorologist explain why it might be cold next week because of an oncoming low pressure front. It's a small group of people to be sure, but that niche is there.
Cable TV is all about niche programming.
Agreed, but there's also a matter of scale to consider. There's niche and there's
niche.
A perfect example of this: In the late '90s tech-oriented publisher Ziff Davis launched a 24-hour cable channel about computers and the Internet–ZDTV, later TechTV. The network lasted barely five years. Since the channel's demise, its most visible on-air personality, Leo Laporte, has commented that the costs just to lease a single satellite channel were staggering (something like a million dollars a month) and that the operation hemorrhaged money from day one. He has said it just wasn't feasible to sustain with such high fixed overhead costs.
Afterward, Leo Laporte went on to create the same types of programming, first as audio podcasts from his home, then modest videocasts from a small cottage, and now a full schedule of live shows with nearly cable-level production values broadcast from a dedicated studio. And depending on what numbers you want to believe, for under $1 million in costs per year, he takes in more than $5 million in ad revenue. Not enough to break even for a few months on cable, but a nice income for a small-time operation.
We never watch the Weather Channel since obviously we can get local weather information relevant to us instantly on the internet (National Weather Service at weather.gov is the best). I can't see sitting around waiting for the local forecast, watching anchors who look like they are just itching to jump into news or sports ("...so that's it for the forecast - Now back to you at the desk for more....uh....weather").
When we were living in Cablevision territory a few years ago, there was a great channel that was an offshoot of our local cable news channel called "News 12 Traffic and Weather". It looped continuously between traffic maps and the local forecast. Just voiceovers and graphics 24 hours a day, its tag line was "Know Before You Go", and we did. I missed it when we moved back to Comcast country, only now getting the primary News 12 channel, although with the advent of smart phones it wasn't that big a deal.
Quote from: cpzilliacus on March 10, 2015, 01:52:11 PM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on March 10, 2015, 12:09:17 PM
I believe the Weather Channel is owned in part by Comcast, so I don't think you'll see that company drop them.
Good point.
Though there are a lot of people out there (like me) that will go without cable TV and Internet service before they will pay any money to Comcast.
Yep. Since my cable choices in Baltimore City are either Comcast or Comcast, I am now officially part of the cord cutting club. We have an antenna for basic channels and our phones and Chromecast for watching stuff online (including freeway Jim videos).
iPhone
Quote from: 02 Park Ave on March 11, 2015, 03:51:38 PM
Yesterday I not only lost The Weather Channel, but last night they sent me an e-mail to tell me that three college sport channels are being removed from my package. I've never watched those channels but still my package was modified/reduced and I received no compensation, i.e.no refund nor no price reduction. And, this isn't the first time they've dropped channels from my package.
I would be delighted if Verizon would drop college sports channels, especially the Big Ten Network.
Quote from: Laura on March 11, 2015, 10:30:04 PM
Yep. Since my cable choices in Baltimore City are either Comcast or Comcast, I am now officially part of the cord cutting club. We have an antenna for basic channels and our phones and Chromecast for watching stuff online (including freeway Jim videos).
You should have superb reception over the air for 2, 11, 13 and 45. Not sure about 22 (which broadcasts from a large tower in Crownsville, Anne Arundel County, on the east side of I-97 near the Hawkins Road overpass) or 67 (is that still offered in the Baltimore area, maybe out of Owings Mills?).
Over in Albany, News 10 uses one of their over the air stations (SD 10.2) as a 24/7 weather broadcast that looks like pre-NBC Weather Channel.
Why was there no warning in advance like when other tv providers were going to drop them?
Also, Verizon FIOS is going to pull out of the market in my area next year, so maybe they don't give a fuck about pissing their customers off anymore. I already hate Verizon because they keep jacking up your bill, and the HD channels sometimes don't work during hot weather, and the stupid-ass techs don't know how to fix it right.
I had cable when I lived at another location, and liked it way better.
It pisses me off that they took away the weather channel. I do, however agree, that they should get rid of the shows and stick to the weather.
Verizon is the second-worst tv provider behind dish. The only thing better about Verizon is that it actually works when its raining or snowing. I don't understand how anybody could tolerate a service that does not work during rain or snow.
Quote from: briantroutman on March 11, 2015, 04:47:28 PM
A perfect example of this: In the late '90s tech-oriented publisher Ziff Davis launched a 24-hour cable channel about computers and the Internet–ZDTV, later TechTV. The network lasted barely five years. Since the channel's demise, its most visible on-air personality, Leo Laporte, has commented that the costs just to lease a single satellite channel were staggering (something like a million dollars a month) and that the operation hemorrhaged money from day one. He has said it just wasn't feasible to sustain with such high fixed overhead costs.
You have to wonder: given the nature of broadband these days, is it really necessary for CATV services to receive content via satellite anymore?
For example, if I'm not mistaken, DirecTV is getting the feed for WeatherNation via Internet rather than satellite link.
(Here's hoping that this is the year I can finally get my wife comfortable with the notion of cutting the cord.)
The Weather Channel is a lot like MTV. It started out fairly awesome, drifted away from its roots, and became irrelevant.
The Weather Channel was bought by NBCUniversal or Comcast, so they're the ones deciding what the channel will be about. AccuWeather looks so...cheap and not the best quality in giving out weather forecasts. TWC has more reality shows now: this is what ruined TLC and the History Channel for me.
I've always been interested in weather, so TWC used to be what I'd always have on in the background. Most people are interested in their own weather, but I'm interested in what's going on all over the country. TWC used to be perfect for that. Once they switched from real weather to (often vaguely) weather-related programming, they lost me. Follow a handful of accounts (including some NWS offices and TWC's own Jim Cantore) on Twitter, and you get all of that interesting weather news from around the country.
The only times I turn it on now are when they are going with live programming for a significant weather event. But even that has changed in the recent era to have less real weather discussion and more overhyped live shots and trying to terrify people (and government officials) that this is the storm that's finally going to wipe out their town. I did notice in the coverage of some of this winter's big northeastern storms, though, that they did have some segments with real meteorologists discussing the models and the subtleties of issuing a forecast for a particular location. They knew someone was going to get slammed but that someone (in one case, NYC) was going to be a just miss and that they'd be ridiculed for blowing the forecast, even though the forecasts on the regional scale were largely right on.
Quote from: Brian556 on March 12, 2015, 02:51:09 PM
Verizon is the second-worst tv provider behind dish. The only thing better about Verizon is that it actually works when its raining or snowing. I don't understand how anybody could tolerate a service that does not work during rain or snow.
This is something I don't understand. I have never had a problem with snow stopping the signal (using directv). In the summer with a really bad storm, maybe once a year, the rain blocks it for a minute or so. It actually acts as a warning sign - the signal goes out before the Bad Shit hits. But overall i just don't understand where people say it goes out every time it rains,
If the signal is marginal to begin with at a property it can go out for weather far more often than normal, but for even a little sprinkle I think is an exaggeration that cable companies use to try to stop people from switching to satellite (and also to sell cord cutters packages that are the exact same channels you can get over the air). I know a couple of my relatives had their signal improve immensely simply by moving next door (though they moved for other reasons), simply because there were fewer trees in between the dish and the sky.
When I had DISH network, I found lightning to be the most disruptive to satellite reception.
However, during the Super Bowl Day blizzard out in Chicagoland, my daughter did lose the DirecTV signal for 24 hours.
On average I may lose signal 3 or 4 times a year during approaching thudnerstorms, usually for about 10 minutes. Usually it could be raining really hard, but I still have signal. My issues seem to arise when I have a taller than normal cumulonimbus cloud immediately to my SW, the ice crystals near the top of the cloud block my satellite reception, yet when the storm moves over my house and the rain begins to fall, it clears up.
I have lost signal during a snow event before, but I have found that something as simple as hosing off the dish will clear it of snow and the signal comes right back (yep, I said hosing, I'm too lazy to climb a ladder and brush it off). :p
Really my only complaint with all of this is why does it take 10+ minutes for my DVR to reboot when a not-so-nearby lightning strike causes my power to flicker the slightest bit?
Back when I had Direst TV, it always went out during heavy rain. I don't recall it snowing during my short experience with it. Lots of other people say that the snow accumulation on the dish is what causes the problem, and sweeping it off fixes it.
WSJ.COM: At the Weather Channel, Gloomy Skies Linger -
TV network's core business–the fees it collects from pay-TV providers–is facing a major threat (http://www.wsj.com/articles/at-the-weather-channel-gloomy-skies-linger-1428276754)
QuoteStorm clouds are gathering over the Weather Channel.
QuoteThe TV network, known for its round-the-clock forecasts and tracking of big weather events like hurricanes and blizzards, is facing a major threat to its core business–the fees it collects from pay-TV providers that carry its channel.
QuoteVerizon Communications Inc. dropped the Weather Channel last month from its FiOS TV service, which reaches 5.6 million households, citing customers' growing use of online sources and apps to look up weather information. The network is scrambling to pull every lever it can to get back on the air, including threatening not to give the telecommunications giant an unrelated Web traffic contract, according to people familiar with the matter.
QuoteMeanwhile, another battle is looming with satellite provider Dish Network Corp. The companies' carriage contract expires in coming months and the Weather Channel's backers are preparing for the possibility of being dropped by Dish, which has about 14 million subscribers, the people familiar with the matter said.
QuoteThe financial outlook for parent company Weather Co. is deteriorating. Moody's Investors Service on Friday downgraded the company's debt, saying it isn't perceived by cable and satellite companies as a "must have" channel, and could therefore be dropped by more providers or face cuts in carriage fees.
QuoteThe immediate concern, however, is getting carriage on Verizon's FiOS service. The Weather Co. has been in talks with Verizon to purchase "content delivery network" services–essentially sophisticated Web traffic routing. But after its channel was dropped last month, Weather Co. terminated those talks in hopes of putting some pressure on Verizon, the people familiar with the situation said. Verizon has so far been unmoved.
Maybe if they stop showing shitty shows...
It would be cool if TWC focused on technical, in-depth explanations of current weather events. Show us soundings and isobars! I'd love to see a TV weather map with honest-to-God wind barbs.
Sadly, TWC is currently the complete opposite of that. I don't even mind documentaries during prime time if they were things like an analysis of why Katrina was so bad, or an explanation of tornadogenesis, or a look at how NWS decides when to issue watches and warnings.
Side note...if this kind of stuff is interesting to you, and you're in Norman in the fall, look up when the Weather Festival is being held. It's essentially an open house for the National Weather Center, which hosts both the Storm Prediction Center (which originates all of the watches for the entire US) and NWS Norman. I went a few years back and it was tons of fun.
I really miss the Weather Channel. It was so nice to for coverage of severe weather outbreaks, as well as the "big picture" of what's going on nationwide.
I really hate Verizon for dropping them. Accuweather is shit. During a big severe outbreak, Accuweather was doing "business as usual", when the Weather Channel would have been covering the severe weather.
Despite all of people's complaints about the Weather Channel, there are still a lot of god things about it.
Quote from: Brian556 on April 13, 2015, 08:27:55 PM
I really miss the Weather Channel. It was so nice to for coverage of severe weather outbreaks, as well as the "big picture" of what's going on nationwide.
I really hate Verizon for dropping them. Accuweather is shit. During a big severe outbreak, Accuweather was doing "business as usual", when the Weather Channel would have been grandstanding and showboating the severe weather.
Despite all of people's complaints about the Weather Channel, there are still a lot of god things about it.
FTFY. TWC is not interested in coverage, they're interested in ratings. The naming of winter storms brought in ratings.
Quote from: Scott5114 on April 13, 2015, 08:17:47 PM
It would be cool if TWC focused on technical, in-depth explanations of current weather events. Show us soundings and isobars! I'd love to see a TV weather map with honest-to-God wind barbs.
Despite having a Weather Channel obsession as a kid, I don't watch it anymore. Of course I haven't had any kind of TV service in about a decade, so that's definitely a contributing factor.
I recall that after the DirecTV standoff, The Weather Channel announced they would be making a concerted effort to drop unrelated programming and focus more on forecasts and meteorologically-oriented content. I think it was about the same time that they announced they were hiring back fan favorite Dave Schwartz after a "Bring Back Dave" campaign. But I never saw Dave back on the air, and the few glimpses I got on hotel room TVs suggested that nothing had changed for the better. Although on a recent hotel stay, I noticed a new show on the on-screen guide: "Wx Geeks" .
Does anyone still watch The Weather Channel–and could they provide an update on the state of affairs?
It has been announced that Verizon will be introducing quasi-a al carte channel selection tomorrow. There will be a basic package and then small groups of channels that can be added on to it. Perhaps The Weather Channel would be in one of them.
Regardless, I hope that I can cut my monthly bill in half.
Quote from: slorydn1 on March 14, 2015, 01:39:12 AMReally my only complaint with all of this is why does it take 10+ minutes for my DVR to reboot when a not-so-nearby lightning strike causes my power to flicker the slightest bit?
One of these will fix that:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/415577/600VA_Back-UPS_with_8_Outlets_and_Network_Protection
I started watching Weather Nation on DirecTV last year when they dropped TWC for awhile. I never went back to TWC even after they brought it back. Only time I watch it now is for major weather stories coverage because Weather Nation doesn't have the kind of extensive coverage TWC does. Weather Nation actually has weather all the time and not a bunch of TV shows some of which aren't even weather related. I also find the naming winter storms by TWC to be annoying. Hardly anybody uses the names outside of them-the local media doesn't use them at all. I don't watch Weather Nation as often as I used to watch TWC especially back in the 90s when I was in college and it provided a nice background when I was doing homework, but I still watch it usually at least once a day for at least a little while.
Quote from: ET21 on April 06, 2015, 05:17:14 PM
Maybe if they stop showing shitty shows...
Ay-men to that! :clap: