The Weather Channel has repeatedly attempted to penetrate the international market over the years. Many of the efforts have proved unsuccessful.
Contents |
In October 1996, IWP (the commercial arm of the Met Office) launched The Weather Channel UK. However, problems doomed it from the start, largely logistical. Before the advent of digital satellite television, time-sharing frequencies was the norm. The Weather Channel broadcast from 6am to 11am, which did not allow for the US formula to be reproduced. Some cable regions had it 24 hours a day, however. The localized content did not work with the time restrictions, and the plug was pulled in early 1998 due to low viewership.
At the same time, Landmark jumped into the Latin American market with a Spanish-language Weather Channel. This international version is the only one with a Weather Star unit operating: special versions of the Weather Star XL were distributed to cable operators for use on TWC Latin America. Within a year, all three of the channel's original anchors had left. As late as 2001, Weekend Now featured a World Weather Watch using TWC Latin America resources. A Portuguese version for Brazil also existed. TWC Latin America went off the air in December 2002.
In 2003, TWC went with a new business model for reaching Europe and Latin America, centered around the weather.com Internet property.[1] Several of these pages have been neglected since launch, though the page design was refreshed on weather.com Latin America in 2008.
The Weather Channel owns a 30% stake in Pelmorex, a Canadian company that owns The Weather Network and MétéoMedia, the Canadian counterparts to TWC. TWC and TWN/MM share forecasting resources. The Pelmorex stake was included in the 2008 sale of TWC and related assets.
The concept of TWC was imported to Australia in 1999. The Weather Channel (Australia) is an unrelated venture that provides weather forecasts in Australia.