TWC has been going downhill steadily for over 10 years now. I'm actually surprised they haven't reached a crisis point sooner. The average person tunes in only because they want a quick look at the forecast. Instead, they get treated to reality style documentaries. When that happens, I would guess 9 out of 10 mutter something under their breath, change the channel and instead get the weather info they need from their local news or the internet.
The management at TWC somehow forgot who their audience actually is sometime around the turn of the century. They sought an audience that not only tunes in, but watches for long durations of time. That isn't going to happen by exclusively doing live weather, because most days are rather boring. Thus began programs like Storm Stories that interrupted live programming and were shown even while tornado outbreaks were in progress, frustrating people to no end. As if that weren't bad enough, as time went on, they added even more programming of this type. Later still, they branched out into even more programming, much of which only vaguely has anything to do with the weather! It became a circus and many of their core viewers simply tired of all the crap and moved on.
What TWC needs to realize is that channels like Discovery, History, etc are simply better at doing the kind of programming they've been attempting and drop those. And they also need to realize that they are never going to attract huge numbers of viewers on typical days with weather based programming. If TWC wasn't satisfied with where they were in the 1990s, then they will never be satisfied, because that was TWC at its best. That is as good as they ever were or will be. If that doesn't satisfy their goal of ratings, they need to drop weather and instead become The "Whatever" Channel. But if they wish to remain weather based, they need to once again become live weather, 24/7, so that viewers can tune in any time of day and within 5 minutes or so get what they are really seeking. And they'll just have to accept that most people aren't going to spend a significant portion of their day watching their channel. Outside of big severe weather days, hurricanes or significant winter storms, the interest just isn't going to be there.
They need to go back to 1990s type programming. Get rid of all the prerecorded crap. And focus on delivering the best live coverage of major weather events as possible. Large numbers of people will tune in for that. To TWC's credit, they have done a bit better job of live severe weather coverage in recent years. No longer will the prerecorded crap take priority over a tornado outbreak. But they need to expand on that. The technology we have today offers enormous potential for live weather coverage. Make the most of it! And just accept that on the boring weather days, fewer viewers are going to watch. If they can do this, TWC will at least survive and do well in this rather niche market. Otherwise, I think they'll completely fail. And sooner rather than later. TWC seemed to do just fine from the 1980s through the 1990s by sticking to actual weather. But somewhere along the way, someone in management got greedy and wanted ratings far in excess of what a live weather based channel is capable of attaining. Thus, here we are!
