Dish Network Drops The Weather Channel

[Joel Wright]

Many of us had talked about the need for something like TWC2 in various threads over the last couple of years. Well, I was just scrolling through my guide on Dish Network, and on channel 213 they now have TWC2. On that channel there's just an announcement that Dish Network and The Weather Channel are pleased to announce the upcoming launch of TWC2. It says it's going to be dedicated to local and regional weather. Interesting.

Anyone know anything more about this?

 

[Matthew Crowther]

Its Weatherscan- local/regional weather graphics, no on-air talent. Its been around for a while.

 

[Bill Hark]

Here is a recent article on the subject:

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/25/w...el-vs-dish-network-storm-warning-for-viewers/

It's a long link but should work.

Bill Hark

 

[Mike Deep]

From the article linked above:

The Weather Channel is hardly alone in diluting its brand by adding questionable entertainment programming in order to boost ratings. Cable channels from MTV (the "M" once stood for music, you young'uns) to TLC (once The Learning Channel, now better known as home to the likes of Jon & Kate) to AMC (once upon a time, "American Movie Classics," now just general movies and original drama series like 'Mad Men'), A&E (which once stood for "Arts & Entertainment" but is now largely reality shows) to Bravo (ditto) to the History Channel (what's historical about 'Pawn Stars'?) have been trending that way for years. Still, no viewer's life or property is at risk because Bravo decides to air a 'Real Housewives' marathon instead of 'Inside the Actors Studio.'

This whole trend is ridiculous. Can anyone name a single channel that still holds true to its namesake? The list is like a bad joke now. They all run together with basically the same (miserable) content.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

From the article linked above:

This whole trend is ridiculous. Can anyone name a single channel that still holds true to its namesake? The list is like a bad joke now. They all run together with basically the same (miserable) content.

I remember MTV as one of my favorite music video stations during the 1980's. It rocked, literally.

TWC showed weather, and just weather in detail, during the 80's and 90's. Any other content back then had a highly educational nature (such as hurricane specials / tornadoes, etc). This was before "storm stories".

I have to vote AGAINST TWC showing movies. That is just down right weird. Now, the internet is far more helpful than TWC. In the early 2000's, chasing involved using a satellite dish to get TWC, and this was ONLY for channel imagery (satellite). This was before really high speed data in the plains.

TLC was better than discovery in the 1990's ... But now its all home improvement and such.

Oh, and on a more off-topic note ... Has anyone seen what the Sci-Fi channel has been showing? I happened to watch that alot a few years back, but just recently, I have been seeing them showing Saw / Hostel and these aweful slice-em-up / torture movies ... That's horror, isn't it?

Anything for ratings / struggling and not even caring about content / children / legacy interest. It's not just TWC.

 

[George Limpert]

I'm not ready to condemn TWC. They actually do a lot of things right.

TWC makes really good maps. They're better than anything I've seen from local stations. It irritates me when a local station shows a map with "current weather" that is several hours old. TWC doesn't have this problem because, while the map may say "current weather" it also includes a timestamp. Computing issues can happen to anyone but there's no excuse for poor design.

TWC also put a lot of effort toward how to make forecasts understandable and effective to the general public. Only within the past few years has NOAA followed this trend and invested substantial research in societal impacts.

I've never been a fan of Storm Stories, which is highly sensationalized. However, I do think Cantore Stories is worthwhile. A week or two ago, I watched an episode about the Mount Washington Observatory. While it might not have presented a lot of science, it did a good offer a look at a rather unique observing station and what it is like to work at the MWO. While it didn't focus on the science a lot, I don't think it was without merit. When I was a young child, I used to watch NASA TV even though I really didn't understand what was going on. I watched when the Discovery Channel ran a documentary on severe weather and storm chasing. These were things that got me interested in the sciences. It reminds people that there's more to meteorology than people on TV who always get the forecast wrong and people who like to get excessively close to tornadoes.

There's been a few comments on the movies that have been shown on the weather channel. Some of them were irrelevant to meteorology and probably didn't merit being shown. But the movie based on Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" shouldn't be on that list. I've read the book and it's a pretty good description of what it's like to summit Everest and what can go wrong. Had the weather stayed calm, even the climbers that probably shouldn't have been on the high mountain would likely have ascended and descended safely. The wind and snow that were experienced on Everest weren't particularly atypical for squalls on the high mountain. While it wasn't presenting the science directly, it certainly gives an appreciation for mountain weather and some of the harsh extremes on the planet. See my above paragraph about getting people interested in science.

So, while I don't like some of the programming on TWC, and you certainly won't find me watching Wake Up With Al, I don't think it's all bad. I'd like to think that the general public has an opportunity to learn more about meteorology than what they get from watching chaser video on CNN and their local 5 PM or 6 PM newscast.

 

[Joel Wright]

Interesting. Now channel 213 that showed up as TWC2 is completely off the guide. The last several days they had an announcement on that channel saying a new weather channel was coming (Weatherscan). Kind of wonder if Dish is still planning on bringing us Weatherscan now.

 

[Joel Wright]

Channel 213 is still vacant on the channel guide, and not a peep from Dish Network about a new channel. You'd think DN would be touting their upcoming new Weatherscan channel. Makes me wonder if DN customers will ever actually see this new channel.

 

[Jason Bolt]

Dish should hire Kevin Martin to run WeatherCast. He could save the ratings fo sure!