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TonyD79
join:2010-04-08
Ellicott City, MD

TonyD79 to Acct101

Member

to Acct101

Re: Are We About to Lose the Weather Channel??

said by Acct101:

We're getting hit with a snow storm in the Philly area today and guess what, I get all the information I want from the local TV web sites or Various other web sites online.

What Weather Channel employees are worried about; is there jobs. Verizon could be starting a trend here that other cable outlets follow.

Considering that both Dish (two years ago) and DirecTV (last year) have already dumped TWC and got better deals because of it, I don't think Verizon is starting a trend.
Acct101
Premium Member
join:2011-09-20
Bensalem, PA

Acct101

Premium Member

Well it sounds like there is no going back for Verizon. As in the other 2 cases you mention.

I was thinking last night, I am guessing AccuWeather has a commitment from Verizon so they can spend; making their services better.
TonyD79
join:2010-04-08
Ellicott City, MD

TonyD79

Member

said by Acct101:

Well it sounds like there is no going back for Verizon. As in the other 2 cases you mention.

I was thinking last night, I am guessing AccuWeather has a commitment from Verizon so they can spend; making their services better.

All the same words were said. This is almost 100% what happened with DirecTV and Dish. They both got other channels and were working on app replacements. They both went with WeatherNation. Dish dumped them eventually but DirecTV still has them but the extra apps were dumped.

There is always going back. The war of words between DirecTV and TWC was much more than with Fios.
crgauth
join:2004-05-18
Glen Burnie, MD

crgauth

Member

Is interested to know why FIOS went with Accuweather not Weather nation (Accuweather channel wasn't around when Dish and DirecTv had their dispute).
One reason could be that Weathernation is carried by two OTA stations in my area (one DC, one Baltimore), so there would be a lot of overlap.
ansky
join:2009-05-18
West Orange, NJ

ansky

Member

said by crgauth:

Is interested to know why FIOS went with Accuweather not Weather nation (Accuweather channel wasn't around when Dish and DirecTv had their dispute).
One reason could be that Weathernation is carried by two OTA stations in my area (one DC, one Baltimore), so there would be a lot of overlap.

These things all come down to money.
javi404
join:2014-01-05
Rutherford, NJ

javi404

Member

said by ansky:

These things all come down to money.

Exactly this. And this isn't just a a simple dispute between weather channel and Verizon.

There are lots of politics involved as well.

Guess who owns 25% of the weather channel?
NBC Universal
Guess who owns 51% of NBC Universal?
Comcast

eival
join:2008-07-09
Richland, WA

eival to SeattleMatt

Member

to SeattleMatt
whats funny about all this, is ive stopped even using the TWC site itself

their radar hasnt worked properly in either chrome or firefox for over a year ever since they made some adjustment, the future cast is completely broken where the green will not load at all but for some hours and the loading circle never goes away

even the past/traditional radar rarely worked, not to mention they blocked all the popular browser apps from letting them use their data, so ive been seeing accuweather for the last few years with forecastfox

and their new layout made even the "hour by hour" which was GREAT before, sucks now,(and another ironic coincidence, the accuweather minute-by-minute rain fall prediction has been pretty much 100% even down here in volatile florida weather, it would literally start and stop within the times they say it would)

all coupled with the entire site filled with what looks like a Weather version of Cracked with all their stupid clips an crap that dont pertain to weather and "saving lives" and paying that guys dental bill to keep his teeth overly bleached

once my march madness recordings stop, im gonna break out one of my splitters and see if the ABC weather scan is still avalible thru my tv's digital OTA adapter and just use that

birdfeedr
MVM
join:2001-08-11
Warwick, RI

birdfeedr to SeattleMatt

MVM

to SeattleMatt
Not completely gone. Headed over to myverizon.com for the first time on tablet, which redirected to fiostrending.verizon.com, and there was a local temp/condition icon, which when tapped, opened up the weather channel in a iframe.

Plenty of links to help me voice my displeasure at VZ dropping TWC. When I visited keeptheweatherchannel.com, I left a comment that was not favorable. I seriously doubt it will be posted.

I get my weather forecast data from taxpayer-funded National Weather Service. The same source that most meteorologists use to put their interpretation on. Radar loop available from same source. Conditions at my house are mirrored almost identically at KPVD airport, and easily accessed from home or away anywhere I have internet.
TonyD79
join:2010-04-08
Ellicott City, MD

TonyD79 to crgauth

Member

to crgauth
said by crgauth:

Is interested to know why FIOS went with Accuweather not Weather nation (Accuweather channel wasn't around when Dish and DirecTv had their dispute).
One reason could be that Weathernation is carried by two OTA stations in my area (one DC, one Baltimore), so there would be a lot of overlap.

Probably availability. There were rumors that directv was going to add accuweather also during the TWC dispute but it wasn't available yet. More likely directv would've gone with accuweather if than WeatherNation if it were available at the time.
javi404
join:2014-01-05
Rutherford, NJ

javi404 to birdfeedr

Member

to birdfeedr
wunderground.com and weatherspark.com are all I use for weather forcasts anyway, I literally only had the weather channel on to see live extreme weather in nearby cities etc. I put the accuweather channel on for 2 min out of habbit (it' was my go to default channel when TWC was on fios) and after 2 min of nothing but commercials and crap with a weather forcast below it, I changed the channel.

I really hope verizon didn't pay accuweather to get their channel because really its 90% advertising and should just be free. Its more like an advertising channel with weather data around the borders.

matcarl
Premium Member
join:2007-03-09
Franklin Square, NY

1 edit

matcarl

Premium Member

TWC didn't have commercials? I think the way Accuweather inserts their commercials is better, they keep the forecast there so no one changes the channel. You don't have to wait for the commercials to end before the weather comes back.
ansky
join:2009-05-18
West Orange, NJ

ansky to javi404

Member

to javi404
said by javi404:

wunderground.com and weatherspark.com are all I use for weather forcasts anyway,

Weather Underground is actually owned by the Weather Channel.
tlbepson
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
dc metro

tlbepson to eival

Premium Member

to eival
>>eival: and their new layout made even the "hour by hour" which was GREAT before, sucks now

Doesn't it just!!!! I hate the new design! I also agree on all the crap they have on the site--I never paid attention to the radar so I don't miss that it doesn't work. I have checked out a couple of the videos only to discover that none of them offer a closed caption option so even if they appeared interesting, I have no idea of what's being said. UGH! '-}}
javi404
join:2014-01-05
Rutherford, NJ

javi404 to matcarl

Member

to matcarl
Of course they had commercials, but they didn't have 2 hour segments of nothing but commercials with some weather data around the border. For just plain weather data I could look at one of my computer screens.

matcarl
Premium Member
join:2007-03-09
Franklin Square, NY

1 edit

matcarl

Premium Member

2 hour segments of nothing but commercials? You're being ridiculous. I have never seen more than two commercials in a row on there.
jr461
join:2006-12-21
Montvale, NJ

jr461 to matcarl

Member

to matcarl
I actually thought this to myself the other night (regarding the weather data remaining on screen during commercials)! The only thing I would like is to know when/if they are live.

I was watching late Fri, maybe around 11PM, after the snow had wound down, and the model, presenting the NYC forecast, was indicating that the snow should wind down around 8-9PM. Quite unprofessional IMO.

And, not knowing how old the presentation is lends pause to whether the forecasts are stale or up to date.
crgauth
join:2004-05-18
Glen Burnie, MD

crgauth to ansky

Member

to ansky
said by ansky:

Weather Underground is actually owned by the Weather Channel.

Technically no.
The Weather Company is a holding company that owns both TWC and Wunderground.
And The Weather Company is in turn owned by NBC Universal and 2 investment companies (Blackstone and Bain).
ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

ham3843 to jr461

Member

to jr461
Your suspicions are well founded, TWC has been committing this deception for a long time now, where they take live broadcasts record them and play them back for hours later without clearly stating that the video is PRERECORDED hours earlier, usually the only evidence is the radar loop clock if they use that, or if a viewer has previously tuned in seen that segment live and then sees it again hours later, which I have done. It is deceptive and indeed UNprofessional. They need to have 24/7 ACTUAL LIVE broadcasts. There are plenty of young eager meteorologists that would be willing to work live on the air during overnight hours, so that the channel is actually REALLY LIVE.

matcarl
Premium Member
join:2007-03-09
Franklin Square, NY

matcarl

Premium Member

He wasn't talking about TWC, he was talking about the new Accuweather Channel, but they probably do the same thing.
ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

ham3843

Member

Yes, Accuweather actually does this as well. Same with WeatherNation which is far worse, with very little live OCM presence. Of course that doesn't make it right.

icemannyr1
join:2001-04-11
Township Of Washington, NJ

icemannyr1 to ham3843

Member

to ham3843
When TWC was still doing weather 24/7 they would take the 1am WCL and replay that till 4am.

Most recently TWC was doing that on the 1am WCL.
Only segments at 1am and 1:30am were live. The others were a replay from the 10pm WCL.
ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

ham3843

Member

But if you go back to the beginning of TWC and into the late 80s or so they were not using prerecorded segments at all, even in the wee hours of the mornings. It was ALL live.
Honestly with the resources and staff available to them they have no good reason to be
using prerecorded segments at all, when you consider what a shoe string budget they were on at the beginning they still had live broadcasting 24/7 no reason they cannot do it now. Like I said bring in young meteorologists that have recently graduated, they will be affordable and work with enthusiasm which is what they really need now. TWC was very good when they were doing things somewhat by the seat of their pants in the earlier days.
javi404
join:2014-01-05
Rutherford, NJ

javi404 to ham3843

Member

to ham3843
said by ham3843:

There are plenty of young eager meteorologists

And if they are in short dresses and skirts, please hire them.
ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

ham3843

Member

said by javi404:

said by ham3843:

There are plenty of young eager meteorologists

And if they are in short dresses and skirts, please hire them.

That's wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but as long as they actually graduated with their
degree in meteorology and don't come off like airheads I say that's great.
ansky
join:2009-05-18
West Orange, NJ

ansky to SeattleMatt

Member

to SeattleMatt
The other night I was watching and they had a guy on giving the forecast for the Northeast region. That guy then exited and was replaced by another guy who then basically repeated everything the first guy just said.
ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

ham3843

Member

said by ansky:

The other night I was watching and they had a guy on giving the forecast for the Northeast region. That guy then exited and was replaced by another guy who then basically repeated everything the first guy just said.

Seriously? That is ODD! Was this a actual LIVE feed?
Back in the early days I believe that they RARELY used a teleprompter at TWC. You could tell but it was in a good way, more information was offered, and as the baton was passed between different OCMs on different day parts they would offer up the information with their own
style of delivery and slightly different emphasis, yet the essential part of the forecast was always presented.

I really wish they would go back to that all live seat of the pants style. It allowed the OCMs to
vary the presentation and seemed to create more enthusiasm on their part when they delivered the information to the viewers. It must of been a very exciting time to work at
The Weather Channel in the early 80s!
Acct101
Premium Member
join:2011-09-20
Bensalem, PA

Acct101

Premium Member

This is why I could care less if we had no weather channels. I believe a lot is prerecorded and I am ok with that because seriously, except for the major storms (which I believe are live broadcast), the weather doesn't change enough to keep a live broadcast going. I think TWC channel feels the same. i.e. all their non weather programming.
bsangs
join:2002-08-21
Montclair, NJ

bsangs to SeattleMatt

Member

to SeattleMatt
So I'm watching FS1 this morning when the local FiOS ad inserts begin. I look up and the second one has Jim Cantore and Sam Champion talking, so I initially assume it's them lobbying for FiOS to bring back TWC. Nope! It then morphs into a plug for the morning show, AMHQ and - here's the hysterical kicker - the FiOS tag saying to watch AMHQ on TWC, FiOS channels 119 and 619. You can't make this stuff up people!
ansky
join:2009-05-18
West Orange, NJ

ansky

Member

said by bsangs:

So I'm watching FS1 this morning when the local FiOS ad inserts begin. I look up and the second one has Jim Cantore and Sam Champion talking, so I initially assume it's them lobbying for FiOS to bring back TWC. Nope! It then morphs into a plug for the morning show, AMHQ and - here's the hysterical kicker - the FiOS tag saying to watch AMHQ on TWC, FiOS channels 119 and 619. You can't make this stuff up people!

They probably paid for that ad to run for a certain period of time. Probably didn't expire yet. I guess Verizon doesn't issue refunds
mikeluscher159
join:2011-09-04

mikeluscher159 to SeattleMatt

Member

to SeattleMatt
After a few days getting used to it, I'm kinda liking AccuWeather.

At least here in VHO-5, they fixed the audio glitches, and fixed the video so its properly aligned with the screen, and isn't stretched, so my OCD is kept in check