Comments on news posted 2014-04-03 15:10:17: Normally when companies have retransmission fee standoffs there's a great pressure put on the cable provider to pay up because the broadcaster content that's missing has irreplaceable value to viewers (like say, when "Breaking Bad" was blocked during.. ..
The Weather Channel actually served a purpose. With cable television taking off and before the internet, what TWC did was revolutionary. It actually provided wall-to-wall weather coverage and anyone who happened to wake up in the middle of the night (for whatever reason) could find out what was happening outside and what it was going to do later in the day, all in about 5-10 minutes of time. As the internet is constantly expanding, there are many choices in which to get weather information, but TWC isn't adapting to it. They would rather increase the bottom line by airing low cost "reality" shit, weather related or not, instead of changing & adapting to giving better weather coverage. In essence, TWC has become an entertainment channel not an information channel. The same information channel that REALLY made them famous and plenty of miney.
Of course, Comcast didn't stop with TWC, even NBC has suffered greatly since their takeover. Seems that everything Comcast touches turns into shit. I decided to turn in to TWC one day around noon (on the weekend). I saw about 10 minutes worth of weather information that actually pertained to Europe, then went on a 15 hour parade of nothing but reality crap. On Sunday, same thing happened, at noon, they went on another tirade of 15 MORE HOURS of reality crap. Never mind that storms were happening in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, but the reality shows went on with very brief cut-ins of about 5 minutes about the actual weather.
Well, that was back in September of 2013 and haven't turn them on since. I have several weather sites that give me what I need at the time I need it.
But I guess they have to pay for all of those over-paid talking heads, so-called pretty women, and all of those elaborate HD studios. I'm sure there are others who feel the same way and I won't be going back to TWC until they give the public what they really want.
For satellite TV, the Weather Channel was not initially as useful since the local coverage was not available except for a very general overview. It was essentially a national coverage for all DirecTV or Dish subscribers
They fixed that. When they cut to the local on the 8s you got info that's specific to your area like they did with cable.
Not in all areas/markets. A pretty large chunk of markets was still missing. And in many cases the area you got is the one 200 miles away, making it essentially useless.
And I am with the poster below here somewhere: I have iphone apps that update all the time, including radar maps and all that. Who needs a dedicated television channel for that?
Your local networks give much better coverage in disasters anyways.
I agree. Local radio (KNX1070) and TV shows all of the local items every 5-10 minutes especially during rush hours, and I can get it on my car while I'm driving (radio). Similar with Waze/Google Maps - they'll give me the traffic issues as a backup.
Not to mention when there's some nut job evading the cops on the (name the freeway #) chase going on then KNX IS the go-to station(KFI a close second).
Some of these local weather folks where I live need to "just step outside" when they are on-the-air. More than once they're say'in "it's slightly drizzling right now" whereas I'm two miles away as the crow flies and it's raining like a cow pissing on a rock. A lot to be said for old school stuff....
The reality shows started coming when they realized they needed something else to offer to the viewer.... who already was carrying the latest weather in their pocket, on their smartphones.
I don't miss the weather channel and had not even attempted to watch it in years. The last time I watched, I had first moved to Atlanta, where they are located, and we had several tornadoes bearing down on the city and actually hitting all around us, they came on the air for a few seconds to show an OLD weather map then jumped right back to an episode of Storm Stories as the town was blown apart. Meanwhile I turned to the local TV stations who gave street level details, instead of TWC vague by the zipcode answers and they updated to the second of where these tornadoes were headed, which to a new to the area person like me was very helpful. Even the online weather.com was useless, but they were not concerned that day with their own safety during the storms, as they were more interested in that STorm STories show that they sold commercial time for instead of giving out actual life saving information, while the local channels that depend on commercials dropped ALL shows and the ads with them to make sure everyone was informed and safe- giving a constant stream of no only what was coming and when, but what to do before, during and after the arrival.
Yeah, got taken over, then taken out back and shot. The live show with Leo Laporte was good television back in the day.
LOL. I think my favorite show was when Leo asked a lady what her ISP was and she said Linksys. LOL> Then Leo looked shocked after a minute or two when he figured out she had no idea what an ISP was and she thought you just connected to a free service call Linksys. LOL> Good TV.
I dunno about you, but I get a chuckle when I see an 80+ year old weatherman doing all sorts of stuff. If you lived in San Diego, you'd need something to kill the time because the weather is so boring here. I
John Coleman, that brings back memories, he was the Weatherman at WLS TV in Chicago back in the '60's and '70s. When he left, the weather got boring in Chicago.
Except, Comcast has been part of TWC since day one. NBC is actually improving thanks to the recent summer and winter Olympics. NBC itself is pulling in a pretty large crowd with the Blacklist, Chicago Fire, and The Voice. Crises has been pretty good, and I also like Hanibal. Comcast was also once invested with QVC (though it has since divested itself of that channel) and QVC sells millions of dollars worth of inventory every year. QVC wouldn't have gotten where it is today with out the support of Comcast. So no, everything Comcast touches doesn't go to crap. It's quite the opposite. The really do have the golden touch.
If you are talking about customer service and quality of service, that doesn't really hold either. I've lived in areas that ended up much better when taken over by Comcast. In my hometown, my provider was bought out be Adelphia, and it sucked. Never got new channels, constant rate increases....Comcast took over and we got new channels. The plant was upgraded, and service improved. In my college town, I went from TCI to ATT to Comcast. TCI sucked, slow response to outages. ATT couldn't get internet working. Comcast came in, upgraded the plant, and all of a sudden I had great broadband, good selection of channels.
And really Comcast itself doesn't dictate what TWC does. If that were the case, then Local on the 8's would be broadcasted in HD on all Comcast systems. And that simply is not the case right now. It all comes down to ratings and viewership. TWC thinks they can increase their ratings with scripted reality programing and media hype (such as naming winter storms). This is why I've stopped watching TWC and rely more on WeatherScan now for a quick look at the weather. And if I really want a good and accurate analysis of the weather, I go to Accuweather.
That is the problem with niche programing channels. Eventually, they have to figure out a way to attract advertisers, and they all too often do it by scripted reality programing. SciFi use to be awesome. First Wave, Farscape, even Sliders....Haven, Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, and Battle Star Gallitica were pretty good. But eventually, they run their shows in to the ground and end up relying on Scripted Reality also all to get their market share up. I love Helix, but I'm waiting for it to go down the tubes in an effort to increase ratings.
We have no one to thank but ourselves. We all hate scripted reality, but for some reason, people keep watching it, all the while complaining that there is no quality programing on tv. STOP WATCHING IT PEOPLE! Eventually, the networks will get the message and stop producing this crap.
I know there are people out there that have had horrible experiences with Comcast. And I also know that there is a lot of criticism that is justified. But to say that everything Comcast touches turns to crap is really unjustified and slanderous.
The changes to the weather channels programming started happening way before Comcast bought NBCUniversal. The changes started happening immediately after NBCUniversal, then a division of GE, bought them in 2008.
Karl, you should have left that one link to The Weather Channel's attention whoring attempts out of the article. You're giving in to their 10 seconds of fame.
I certainly don't care about it on Dish. Cable, it's ok to have the local bits though.
I'm also glad I'm not the only one who finds this part a little on the crazy side:
..continues to name the tiniest of storms in the apparent hopes of creating a nation of weather neurotics...
Edit: even on their website, they had a new "winter" storm advisory somewhere. Honestly, it's spring now. Come on. Nobody cares about naming every little cell of weather activity. Hurricanes of great magnitude deserve them. Storms don't. It can be easily referenced by month/year, and day, if necessary.
I have DTV and don't miss TWC. I stopped watching TWC a long time ago because they suck at reporting the weather. Every time I turned it on they were showing something that was not the weather - a movie or some show about weather, but not the current weather. I like the new Weather Nation channel. It does what TWC used to do back in the old days - it shows the weather forecast.
NBC and Comcast killed the Weather Channel oh.....
Remember that old song by the Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star"??
Well once upon a time in 1982 a group of people came together to create a service that would indeed be a public service which covered weather live, 24/7 with real meteorologists that actually were enthusiastic about broadcasting as well as the weather, and thus the Weather Channel was born.
Sure there were some ups and downs but as technology improved so did the Weather Channel's product, and viewers flocked to them in droves...
Unfortunately the real weather enthusiasts were forced out over time at Landmark Communications (which owned TWC) and you could see the slow drift away from their mission statement. Then NBC bought The Weather Channel, and destroyed what little serious weather coverage was left, and replaced it with a string of idiotic reality shows for most of the time. NBC had previously bought a OTA broadcast service called "Weather PLUS" and proceeded to kill it off just before it bought The Weather Channel.
Fact is that until Concrap returns The Weather Channel to its original mission, the channel will become obsolete and no viewers will be left.
And stubbornly the current Weather Channel management will NOT listen to views who are rightfully complaining about the idiotic naming of all winter storms!!! STOP THIS CRAP NOW!
There is still a place for on air, live certified, meteorologists with insight that no internet service can really match, but Concrap won't hear of it.
Reminds me of MTV which used to actually air lots of interesting videos all day long but now shows nothing but lame brained reality crap that I would bet hardly anybody watches.
Cable/Sat companies need to stick to there guns about raising carriage fees. Our bills keep going up because content providers keep raising prices and the cable/ sat companies just pass those on. Instead of people jumping ship on there providers when they get in a dispute they should back them to stop these constant price increases.
Cable/Sat companies need to stick to there guns about raising carriage fees.
They've tried that and then customers flee to other companies that are willing to pay the higher prices. Stop doing that. So why should they bother if that's the thanks they get?
Stop doing that. So why should they bother if that's the thanks they get?
Funny, people are always saying companies are in business for the purpose of making money... now they aiming for 'thanks'? If people really want the Weather channel then they are free to leave to someone who offers it, isn't that the free market? Why should anyone feel an obligation to stay with a company that doesn't offer what they want?
People that don't care about the Weather channel are fine. They are sitting around waiting for the bill reduction for a channel they are no longer paying for. How much was that again?
Since NBC Universal owns The Weather Channel and Comcast owns NBC Universal I still have The Weather Channel in my subscription package. It's not likely to go away from CC. I've been complaining about their programming for several years but stopped watching it for the same number of years and unless it changes I'll still not watch it. In the end, Comcast subs may be the only folks supporting it's operation. I want current weather not past disasters or past weather. Wake up Weather Channel and program 24 hour weather.
Don't you think that DirecTV is sending a msg to Comcast
by dropping TWC????
A not-too-subtle message that "We(DTV) don't like you(Comcast/NBC Universal/NBC Sports Network/and all your other broadcast operations), so don't jerk us around. You're getting a little too big for your britches, and you depend on getting revenue from us!!!"
This is all besides the stated reasons that DTV has already given about: too many reality shows and not enough weather information .
Remember when MTV actually meant Music Television? That's what The Weather Channel has become - a failed attempt at something purposeful.
When we need an update on the weather, I check in at my preferred weather site online (Weather Underground) or via my Android (WeatherBug), and my wife prefers the Comcast local weather channel. I don't even know what channel TWC is on anymore.
I approve of the directv ban of weather channel, i hated the stupid reality shows, the stupid storm names, and weathernation has been good if not better than TWC, especially being able to bring in photography from social media, etc... it is what the weather channel was..... BUT today april 3, 2014, during severe weather all over the midwest, NO LIVE COVERAGE, NO LIVE RADAR, COMMENTARY ETC. in the past ive seen excellent live coverage on TWC, including weather experts and level 2 nexrad, and much better modes than on the web or WN today.
The long awaited "severe weather mix" channel, (an amazing concept to feed local channels detailing severe weather) i saw it the first time and all it was is just national cable news channels!! (basically, a NEWS MIX channel).... the severe weather mix channel sucked so bad they yanked it off the air!!!
They better fix this fast and actually cover severe storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.
If they dont fix this fast, then the changes will have been awful and they should bring back the weather channel at all costs.
The retransmission rights need to cause one network/provider after another to get dropped. Few cable channels have anything worthwhile. The Weather Channel barely shows weather, the History Channel shows few history related shows and the Arts and Entertainment Channel needs to change it's name to Unreality TV. MTV don't show music? Dump them all. If local channels force their hand dump them like a wet bag of sand because we can get those shows via many means.
In short anyone trying to squeeze more money for a network with commercials....dump them. I won't be upset.