Dish Network Drops The Weather Channel

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cody Clair
  • Start date Start date
I don't think I have watched TWC for over a year until about a month ago once I learned Vortex 2 was going again. The only one I like is Dr. Forbes and his TorCon index (even though I'm not sure how accurate it is). One thing with TWC being on Dish Network, is that you could not get local forcasts on it. Thus, that turned me off of the channel.
 
As of tonight at 2345, TWC was still on. I thought it was going off at midnight last night. Was it tonight? Or maybe this weekend? One thing I noticed on the Weathercast. They repeat stuff that is many hours old. What good is that? Hopefully they will rectify that in very short order.
 
Where this is really going to hurt TWC is in advertising revenue. Loosing that many households will force them to cut their rates significantly, and in this economy that could be a death blow.
 
TWC ain't what it used to be that is for sure. The move to entertainment is BS to me. Kind of like what MTV did, it doesn't play much music these days. The Food Network has done the same thing to similar complaints from its foodie veiwers (and there is a new cooking network starting up soon to counter the entertainment bias of TFN).

Now I just stick to he NWS sites, and others, for hard Wx information. TWC's live reports in the field are fine but their short four minute format really doesn't allow for much detail on a regular day. Plus many of their on air people seem like total idiots.
 
Goodbye weather channel

I've got DISH, and will miss some of the things that the Wx. Channel brought to the table. Even though I've never met Jim Cantore or Dr. Forbes....I always felt that they worked very hard at bringing their best to their viewers.
Another aspect that I will miss once the Wx. Channel is gone, is the goofy instrumental music that they'd play while showing the forcasts. For many successive years during chase season in the alley, once my alarm clock would go off in the morning at whatever motel in whatever town I'd be in, I'd click on the Wx. Channel and lay back with my eyes closed...slowly awakening to those tunes. I still associate that music with happy times...as I'd lay there thinking about how my chase partners and I were going to play out the day.
 
Dish has reached an agreement with NBC/WxChannel.

WeatherCast is gone from Dish.

WxChannel will be given a second channel for "more local" content.
 
James Aydelott said:
Dish has reached an agreement with NBC/WxChannel.

WeatherCast is gone from Dish.

WxChannel will be given a second channel for "more local" content.
Click to expand...

TWC has that local content channel in my Market.

TWC wanted fair market value for their network carraige. DISH disagreed with what constituted fair market value. It seems a compromise was reached. The same thing happened earlier this year when HGTV and FOOD went black in the NYC metro - the largest market in the US. Backlash from subs threatening to switch to DISH/DTV tipped the scales in favor of HGTV and a deal was struck.

But I doubt TWC has the same viewer loyalty as HGTV/FOOD. Weather is weather, right?

There is a tectonic shift happening behind the scenes in cable right now. It kind of reminds me of the way professional sports salaries keep ratcheting up. Once the first NFL player got a $10 mil contract, they became as common as an interception from Jamarkus Russell. In cable, it all started with the ludicrous amount that ESPN charges MSOs. Now all of the programming providers are wanting a seat on the gravy train. The MSOs are stuck because they can't (sometimes by law) raise rates at a pace to keep up with the per-sub charges demanded by the providers, especially with such fierce competition from the sat distributors. The competition between the cable MSOs and the sat companies is great for us. Not so great for them.

That's why you are seeing cable companies looking to launch their own weather, news, and music channels. It's actually cheaper than paying the providers in some cases.
 
Old Timer

GlennMartin said:
Joel,
I too hold a nostalgic view of TWC. I started chasing in the 80s when TWC was actually a source of information. The glory days of the operation if you will. Here is a site I discovered you might know of it already.
Click to expand...

Same for me. I started watching back in '82 when they first hit the air. It was simple by today's standards, but by-golly you got weather 24/7. I started loosing interest back in the late 90's when the format seemed to get watered down. Now, I can't remember the last time I watched TWC. Movies? TCM. Weather? Four good local stations here and of course the internet.

And of course, for us 'old timers', who can ever forget planning a day's chase with info from PBS's A.M. Weather. Now that was real forecasting! :D
 
Oh wow lets not even go there! A.M. Weather now those were the days. Carl Weiss was one of the anchors and in school I jokingly put down Carl Weiss as my favorite actor on a survey. The teacher wanted to know who that was she just looked at me like I was delusional. :D
 
I was at a hotel a couple of days ago and was looking forward to watching VORTEX 2 coverage. They had Dish and no Weather Channel. I was annoyed as I have enjoyed the VORTEX and severe weather coverage.

Bill Hark
 
Found Weathercast by Accident

I was watching TWC last week when for some reason, the broadcasting changed suddenly. All at once, I was seeing different weather meteorogists with different weather graphics on the screen. :confused:

The screen still had that TWC look since it had the words "Weather Channel" in the lower right corner of the screen. Still I was engaged by the wonderful color graphics, showing the storms tracking on radar, the upper vertical profiles, etc. I was literally drooling with saliva (ala Homer Simpson) over the color graphics! :eek:

Then a half hour later, things were back to normal. I checked the channel selection screen on my DISH Network DVR. Here the Weather Cast channel was right above the TWC channel! Either the DISH Network had a feed problem or I must have "bumped" the remote. :o

The channel screen indicated that the Weather Cast channel will be replaced by "local weather" programming. Would be interesting to see how it works out. :)
 
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