The Weather Channel

[NBC 5 Chicago 190]

Don't get me started on the lights. Half the time Storm Center is blue and the other half its yellow, like today. Then we got T-Mobile for Pattrn which I feel is way overboard than the other shows. 

 

Samantha Mohr is on tonight during Storm Center. I forgot she was a fill in again. They've been going deep into the fill ins this week for coverage. Yet they had Felicia on yesterday during Pattrn but Molly at the beginning of the week. It'll be interesting to see who's going to be paired with Carl for the late night hours.  But so far Mark, Jeff, Colleen, Samantha have filled in this week. Chris Bruin filled in for Alex Wallace on Monday even though Alex was there for the 40th anniversary. It's been an interesting week with the OCM's. 

[Spring Rubber 700]

3 hours ago, NBC 5 Chicago said:

Don't get me started on the lights. Half the time Storm Center is blue and the other half its yellow, like today. Then we got T-Mobile for Pattrn which I feel is way overboard than the other shows. 

 

Samantha Mohr is on tonight during Storm Center. I forgot she was a fill in again. They've been going deep into the fill ins this week for coverage. Yet they had Felicia on yesterday during Pattrn but Molly at the beginning of the week. It'll be interesting to see who's going to be paired with Carl for the late night hours.  But so far Mark, Jeff, Colleen, Samantha have filled in this week. Chris Bruin filled in for Alex Wallace on Monday even though Alex was there for the 40th anniversary. It's been an interesting week with the OCM's. 

I'm surprised that they're even scheduling nighttime coverage tonight, considering how much the severe threat is diminishing, until it flares back up again tomorrow.

 

Edit to my previous statement: apparently the severe weather is supposed to flare up again tonight after a brief lull, so maybe there will be something of an outbreak, especially of damaging winds, to cover.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Spring Rubber

[Spring Rubber 700]

TWC wound up not doing extended coverage last night, despite the box in the lower right corner saying that they were going to do so.

 

Guess what, they're not doing extended coverage tonight either, despite the fact that there's a 10% tornado risk, and multiple active tornado warnings, including a confirmed tornado actively on the ground. They promptly went to long form at 8pm ET despite the circumstances.

[NBC 5 Chicago 190]

9 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

TWC wound up not doing extended coverage last night, despite the box in the lower right corner saying that they were going to do so.

 

Guess what, they're not doing extended coverage tonight either, despite the fact that there's a 10% tornado risk, and multiple active tornado warnings, including a confirmed tornado actively on the ground. They promptly went to long form at 8pm ET despite the circumstances.

 

They did break in twice so far to update the status of those storms. I don't know why they just didn't do another hour of Storm Center until things calm down then bring Carl in. Their severe weather coverage outside of their shows sucks anymore. 

[Spring Rubber 700]

What's interesting this year is that almost every severe weather outbreak this spring (except for the early March Iowa outbreak) has occurred on a weekday, which at least allows TWC to be guaranteed live until 8pm ET. I'd hate to see how they'd handle an event like today if it occurred on a weekend.

 

They were also woefully inconsistent with their handling of Pattrn. They completely pre-empted it yesterday, yet they aired the full two hours of it today despite multiple tornado warnings being in progress during the show.

[Georgie56 3292]

So, there's a show on TWC En Español called Twilight, which is basically their version of Fox Weather's Night Light. Wouldn't mind seeing this imported to regular TWC.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Georgie56

[Spring Rubber 700]

2 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

So, there's a show on TWC En Español called Twilight, which is basically their version of Fox Weather's Night Light. Wouldn't mind seeing this imported to regular TWC.

 

 

 

Wow, that feels like almost a direct rip off of Night Light.

[mightynine 290]

That’s using the same setup as Pattrn’s (the OTT version) national forecast, which predates Fox Weather. 
 

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by mightynine

[Spring Rubber 700]

4 hours ago, mightynine said:

That’s using the same setup as Pattrn’s (the OTT version) national forecast, which predates Fox Weather. 
 

 

Ah, I was totally unaware that existed. In that case, looks like Fox Weather ripped off TWC's format, then. I would say that TWC's format is more efficient in how quickly the information is presented. I understand that the point of Fox Weather's Night Light is to be slow-paced and calm for the overnight hours, but it's sort of frustrating just how slowly the information is presented. It takes forever to get from one city/region to the next, and there's not much information being delivered at any given time.

[T.L. Hughes 881]

TWC has quietly launched a new DTC streaming service (known simply as “The Weather Channel TV App”), which is structurally similar to its TV Everywhere app and offers a live linear feed of the channel as well as local weather information (the “My Weather” feature where this is accessible is somewhat similar to the TWC interactive weather apps on DirecTV and Dish) and on-demand content.

 

It is available for $2.99/month or $29.99/year, after a seven-day trial. At launch, it is available mainly as a Smart TV on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Xfinity Flex devices. It’s not clear if this is a replacement for the planned Weather Channel Plus service announced last year.

[Spring Rubber 700]

5 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

TWC has quietly launched a new DTC streaming service (known simply as “The Weather Channel TV App”), which is structurally similar to its TV Everywhere app and offers a live linear feed of the channel as well as local weather information (the “My Weather” feature where this is accessible is somewhat similar to the TWC interactive weather apps on DirecTV and Dish) and on-demand content.

 

It is available for $2.99/month or $29.99/year, after a seven-day trial. At launch, it is available mainly as a Smart TV on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Xfinity Flex devices. It’s not clear if this is a replacement for the planned Weather Channel Plus service announced last year.

If it lasts longer than 30 days, we can call it a huge success, right?

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

On 5/9/2022 at 4:33 PM, T.L. Hughes said:

TWC has quietly launched a new DTC streaming service (known simply as “The Weather Channel TV App”), which is structurally similar to its TV Everywhere app and offers a live linear feed of the channel as well as local weather information (the “My Weather” feature where this is accessible is somewhat similar to the TWC interactive weather apps on DirecTV and Dish) and on-demand content.

 

It is available for $2.99/month or $29.99/year, after a seven-day trial. At launch, it is available mainly as a Smart TV on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Xfinity Flex devices. It’s not clear if this is a replacement for the planned Weather Channel Plus service announced last year.

 

I'm probably gonna join this service at some point. I miss The Weather Channel but not the 8PM-5AM stuff they air. I can wholly do that without.

[Spring Rubber 700]

It was a bad week for TWC. They went to long form programming promptly at 8 PM ET both Wednesday and Thursday nights when major severe weather (with multiple tornado warnings) was firing off throughout the northern plains. I don't get how you make the decision to disregard a major derecho with 90+mph straight line lines with multiple embedded tornadoes and say, "No thanks, we're good. We gotta get to long form at 8 PM no matter what."

 

In 2021 and prior, when Weather Underground was a 5pm-8pm ET program, they would very regularly at least add one extra hour of Weather Underground from 8pm-9pm ET. It was an extra 4th hour of the show, because the show was 3 hours long, and adding a 4th extra hour was no big deal. When Weather Underground became a 4-hour show last year from 4pm-8pm ET, they stopped adding the extra hour at 8pm. I'm guessing there's a clause in the OCM contracts that they can't add a 5th hour to their shifts willy-nilly; they're probably capped at 4 hours.

 

Now with Pattern being introduced to the schedule, Storm Center is now the same as old Weather Underground, 5pm-8pm ET, only three hours, yet despite this, they simply will not add the extra hour at 8pm ET, even when horrible severe weather exists, if they didn't pre-schedule "extended coverage" ahead of time to last to 1am ET.

[nycnewsjunkie 1439]

28 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

It was a bad week for TWC. They went to long form programming promptly at 8 PM ET both Wednesday and Thursday nights when major severe weather (with multiple tornado warnings) was firing off throughout the northern plains. I don't get how you make the decision to disregard a major derecho with 90+mph straight line lines with multiple embedded tornadoes and say, "No thanks, we're good. We gotta get to long form at 8 PM no matter what."

 

In 2021 and prior, when Weather Underground was a 5pm-8pm ET program, they would very regularly at least add one extra hour of Weather Underground from 8pm-9pm ET. It was an extra 4th hour of the show, because the show was 3 hours long, and adding a 4th extra hour was no big deal. When Weather Underground became a 4-hour show last year from 4pm-8pm ET, they stopped adding the extra hour at 8pm. I'm guessing there's a clause in the OCM contracts that they can't add a 5th hour to their shifts willy-nilly; they're probably capped at 4 hours.

 

Now with Pattern being introduced to the schedule, Storm Center is now the same as old Weather Underground, 5pm-8pm ET, only three hours, yet despite this, they simply will not add the extra hour at 8pm ET, even when horrible severe weather exists, if they didn't pre-schedule "extended coverage" ahead of time to last to 1am ET.

It honestly benefits TWC to have weather coverage in prime time. Even from a ratings standpoint, severe weather is far more interesting than whatever they put on after 8pm. Do you know if their derecho coverage was paywalled for those in the affected area? Would be disgraceful if so.

[Spring Rubber 700]

1 hour ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

It honestly benefits TWC to have weather coverage in prime time. Even from a ratings standpoint, severe weather is far more interesting than whatever they put on after 8pm. Do you know if their derecho coverage was paywalled for those in the affected area? Would be disgraceful if so.

I'm not sure if their coverage was paywalled. Maybe someone else might know?

[Spring Rubber 700]

Sure enough, TWC added a bonus hour of coverage tonight at 8pm ET because the SPC put out an Enhanced Risk for all of the big cities in the northeast (which most of the threat seems to have flopped and/or been super mild), yet last week when the weather in the midwest was extreme, TWC wasn't there to cover it. The Northeast bias continues...

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

So I just realized that the Stream TWC thing... you need cable/satellite to stream it plus pay with a monthly or annual plan. Its like... what's the damn point?

[Spring Rubber 700]

14 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

So I just realized that the Stream TWC thing... you need cable/satellite to stream it plus pay with a monthly or annual plan. Its like... what's the damn point?

On StreamTWC.com, it says that you can watch for free if you already have TWC through a cable or satellite subscription, so my understanding is that the paid service is for users who don't already have a cable or satellite subscription?

[nycnewsjunkie 1439]

59 minutes ago, Spring Rubber said:

On StreamTWC.com, it says that you can watch for free if you already have TWC through a cable or satellite subscription, so my understanding is that the paid service is for users who don't already have a cable or satellite subscription?

I was confused about that as well. Does the streaming service have any features other than extra severe weather coverage?

[mightynine 290]

Yes, this new service is basically making the TV stream available for purchase to those who don't have access through their current provider.

[NBC 5 Chicago 190]

Looks like they've extended morning coverage to overtake the live edition of Pattrn today.  There's an enhanced risk of severe weather but nothing like the past severe weather days so I'm curious why the change today. Wonder if WU will take over the 1pm hour for additional coverage and if there is extended overnight coverage or they just ended up scraping Pattrn for today. 

[Spring Rubber 700]

29 minutes ago, NBC 5 Chicago said:

Looks like they've extended morning coverage to overtake the live edition of Pattrn today.  There's an enhanced risk of severe weather but nothing like the past severe weather days so I'm curious why the change today. Wonder if WU will take over the 1pm hour for additional coverage and if there is extended overnight coverage or they just ended up scraping Pattrn for today. 

My guess is that this is a reaction to the fact that the SPC's 1am CT outlook today had a 10% hatched area for tornado risk, which SPC walked back as of the 8am CT update and moved it back down to a 5% risk area.

 

TWC's decisions on pre-emptions this year seem to be based on hatched tornado risk areas. If there's a hatched tornado risk; they'll pre-empt, but if there's not a hatched tornado risk area, they don't pre-empt. The tornado risk areas last week that they refused to pre-empt programming for were standard 10% risk areas without the hatched area. IMO, those should be taken as seriously as a 10% hatched area, specially like last Thursday when there was a huge 45% hatched straight-line wind risk, but TWC hates covering straight-line wind events because it's not as dramatic as tornado coverage.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Spring Rubber

[NBC 5 Chicago 190]

1 hour ago, Spring Rubber said:

My guess is that this is a reaction to the fact that the SPC's 1am CT outlook today had a 10% hatched area for tornado risk, which SPC walked back as of the 8am CT update and moved it back down to a 5% risk area.

 

TWC's decisions on pre-emptions this year seem to be based on hatched tornado risk areas. If there's a hatched tornado risk; they'll pre-empt, but if there's not a hatched tornado risk area, they don't pre-empt. The tornado risk areas last week that they refused to pre-empt programming for were standard 10% risk areas without the hatched area. IMO, those should be taken as seriously as a 10% hatched area, specially like last Thursday when there was a huge 45% hatched straight-line wind risk, but TWC hates covering straight-line wind events because it's not as dramatic as tornado coverage.

See regardless if its not dramatic as tornado coverage its still severe weather. That should ALWAYS be covered. I get your assumptions regarding the 10% and hatched tornado risk. Regardless there needs to be a better parameter for covering severe weather. If there are active tornado warnings and you're approaching going into programming hours they should pre-empt, period. That's the reason people turn to the weather channel anyways or at least used to. I know ways of getting warnings and keeping informed have changed since TWC formed but a channel devoted to weather should still be devoted to at least covering the severe cases of weather. 

[Spring Rubber 700]

27 minutes ago, NBC 5 Chicago said:

See regardless if its not dramatic as tornado coverage its still severe weather. That should ALWAYS be covered. I get your assumptions regarding the 10% and hatched tornado risk. Regardless there needs to be a better parameter for covering severe weather. If there are active tornado warnings and you're approaching going into programming hours they should pre-empt, period. That's the reason people turn to the weather channel anyways or at least used to. I know ways of getting warnings and keeping informed have changed since TWC formed but a channel devoted to weather should still be devoted to at least covering the severe cases of weather. 

I wholeheartedly agree with you. They need to adjust their live coverage hours dynamically based on the circumstances, not solely basing everything on SPC outlooks that are issued 18-36 hours before the event.

 

On TWC in the 90s and 2000s, they used to have shifts that were produced using one OCM and one person in the master control room pressing the buttons to run the show. It wasn't pretty, but it functioned. Automation technology has greatly advanced these days to where you can run a reasonable-quality broadcast with one or two people in the control room and one OCM in front of the camera. We've seen many nights where Carl Parker, Ray Stagich, or Mark Thibodeau break into long form programming every so often for only 30-60 seconds at a time. If they can do those short solo-hosted break-ins, why can't they stay live for longer periods of time when it really matters?

 

What kind of extended coverage do they provide on their streaming platform? Is it hosted by OCMs, or is it automated weather maps/radar?

[mightynine 290]

The app just has the same maps/forecasts/etc. as you would see on their website or other similar smart TV apps (except for whatever happened to the Apple TV TWC app, which is worthless these days).

 

Here's a good breakdown of the "new" Weather Channel TV App, which appears to just be their previous TV Everywhere-enabled app (for anything except, again, Apple TV) with the ability to pay directly for access to their TV stream:

 

https://thestreamable.com/news/the-weather-channel-launches-new-dtc-service-the-weather-channel-tv-app