WeatherNation TV

WeatherNation TV (branded on-air as simply WeatherNation) is an American broadcast, digital streaming, cable and satellite television network that is owned by WeatherNation, Inc. The network broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news, including periodic coverage of severe and tropical weather events, as well as local weather segments. The network's studio facilities, along with its headquarters and master control facilities are located in the Denver suburb of Centennial, Colorado.

History

WeatherNation, LLC. was founded in July 2009 as a syndication service for local television stations, cable and satellite providers. On May 20, 2010, the company launched The Weather Cast, a channel developed for Dish Network with the intent to replace The Weather Channel on the satellite provider; Dish, which had been negotiating with the channel on a new carriage agreement, had planned to drop The Weather Channel as a result of a dispute over a planned increase in retransmission consent payments and the provider's dissatisfaction with the channel's decreased reliance on weather forecasts in favor of reality, documentary and other entertainment programming. The Weather Cast existed for four days, ceasing operations on May 24, when The Weather Channel reached a multi-year agreement with Dish Network.

On March 30, 2011, WeatherNation TV, Inc. announced that it would launch a new national weather channel, to be named WeatherNation TV, beginning in the second quarter of 2011, with cable television providers that were members of the National Cable Television Cooperative being the first to offer the new network.^[1] WeatherNation TV launched on May 27, 2011, and was rolled out to all of the participating systems by the last week of July 2011.^[2]

WeatherNation would gain its first broadcast television outlet by October 24, 2011, WHDT in Stuart, Florida (serving the West Palm Beach television market), with translators in Naples and Miami, Florida, and Boston, Massachusetts.^[3] WIYC in Montgomery, Alabama also started carrying WeatherNation that same month.^[4] Further expansion of its broadcast affiliate body continued in January 2012, when WeatherNation added affiliates in Minneapolis, Minnesota (KARE-TV);^[5] Little Rock, Arkansas (KMYA-DT); Fort Smith, Arkansas (KFDF-CA); and Springfield, Missouri (KFFS-CA).^[6]

Many of WeatherNation TV's initial over-the-air affiliates were low-power and full-power stations that were not affiliated with one of the major broadcast television networks. However, from 2012 to 2014, the network announced piecemeal agreements with two major broadcasting groups to carry WeatherNation on the subchannels of network-affiliated stations (including one which expanded upon an existing affiliation agreement with such a station). During 2013 and 2014, the network expanded its distribution agreement with the Gannett Company, owner of Minneapolis affiliate KARE-TV, to add the network on the subchannels of its stations in cities such as Atlanta (WXIA-TV), Denver (KUSA) and Washington, D.C. (WUSA).^[7][8][9] On October 27, 2014, WeatherNation TV signed an affiliation agreement with the Sinclair Broadcast Group to carry its programming on a subchannel of the company's flagship station, WBFF in Baltimore.^[10] Beginning in November 2014, additional Sinclair owned or managed stations signed affiliation agreements with the network in markets such as Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Mobile, Alabama and Bakersfield, California.

In December 2013, WeatherNation launched on DirecTV channel 361 as part of a carriage dispute between the The Weather Channel and DirecTV. In April 2014, the companies announced a long term agreement for the carriage of WeatherNation TV on the DirecTV platform.

On April 21, 2015, Dish Network announced that it had reached an agreement to add WeatherNation onto its lineup, making it available on channel 215.^[11]

Programming

WeatherNation TV provides national, regional and local weather forecast segments as well as specialty forecasts and other features. National segments are presented by on-camera meteorologists employed with the network (who have had prior broadcasting experience to some degree, with a few having served as chief meteorologists at stations where they were previously employed at some point during their career or had recently graduated from meteorology schools at their alma mater universities immediately before joining the network). Beginning at the top of each hour in ten-minute intervals, WeatherNation often provides analysis outlining weather conditions around the United States. These are usually followed by segments providing three-day forecasts, meteorological analysis and weather alerts (with the exception of shorter-term alerts such as severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings) – if issued by the Storm Prediction Center or by National Weather Service forecast offices – for twelve designated U.S. regions (California and Nevada; Alaska; Hawaii; the Northeast; the Pacific Northwest; the South; the Southeast; the High Plains; the Central Plains; the Great Lakes; the Central East and the Four Corners).

In order for its broadcast affiliates to comply with the Federal Communications Commission's Children's Television Act (which incorporates a rule requiring stations to carry additional educational programming content on their subchannels regardless of their programming format), WeatherNation provides a three-hour block of children's programs originally distributed for syndication from Telco Productions, a production company founded by television host/producer Alex Paen, on Sunday mornings/early-afternoons (presently made up of Animal Rescue, Dog Tales, Missing and Think Big, and former PBS series distributed by the company for commercial syndication, DragonflyTV and Biz Kid$). During the E/I block, weather segments are shown in a five-minute window between programs.

Local forecasts

WeatherNation TV regularly provides local forecast segments under the branding "Local Weather Now", which are shown ten times per hour starting at five minutes past the hour (using a fixed scheduling and format similar to that of The Weather Channel's Local on the 8s). Local forecasts aired on WeatherNation's broadcast outlets are presented in either of two formats; by default, affiliates can show graphical forecasts – using network-provided graphics that are customized for a specific region – that are generated by a computer unit installed at the station's master control, which inserts data over WeatherNation's national feed. The localized segments provide current weather observations (with the exception of the current air temperature), and high and low temperatures observed since 12:00 a.m. local time for a given city; at-a-glance forecasts for the current daypart and the day after (similar to those seen during national segments); seven-day forecasts; almanacs (showing temperature averages and extremes for the current date, and recorded precipitation for the past 24 hours, historical maximum precipitation for the date, and month-to-date and departure from average precipitation in the area); and computer models showing forecasted sky conditions and temperatures in the surrounding metropolitan area and region for the succeeding 24- to 36-hour period.

Many affiliates provide pre-recorded segments conducted by the affiliate's weather staff, which are updated two to four times a day, mainly detailing forecasted weather conditions for the area. Some affiliates that maintain a news department carry the default graphic-only segment if a meteorologist or weather anchor employed with the station is not available (usually if it does not regularly produce a newscast during a given daypart, such as weekend mornings, for its main channel) to conduct the recorded forecasts. The national forecast segment that airs in place of the localized segments on the national feed includes computer model forecasts (clouds and precipitation, and predicted temperatures and precipitation amounts) for the next 48 hours, active weather alerts, current temperatures and dew points, two-hour composite satellite/radar loops, drought conditions and Storm Prediction Center thunderstorm forecasts for the contiguous United States. Music accompanying the graphical forecast segments and full-screen radar loop comes from various commercial sources.

Weather ticker

WeatherNation also displays continuous weather information on an "L"-shaped ticker placed at the left third and lower tenth of the screen, which is visible even during commercial breaks and educational programming supplied by the network. The affiliate's logo bug is perpetually placed on the top left side for identification purposes; while the middle left two-thirds below display current weather conditions (sky condition, actual and apparent temperature, cloud coverage by percentage, dew point, barometric pressure and wind speed/direction, accompanied by the expected high and low temperatures), and 36-hour and six-day forecasts (showing the forecasted sky conditions and temperatures) for the affiliate's city of service and other cities within the viewing area or state; a three-hour radar loop is displayed in a self-contained box on the bottom left. The banner also employs a severe weather mode during inclement weather, showing active weather alerts for the station's viewing area on a separate red ticker on the lower band of the ticker. The national feed displays the network's logo on the affiliate bug placement, and current weather observations and forecasts for 50 major U.S. cities on the remainder of the left two-thirds of the ticker instead, regional satellite/radar composites on the bottom left and weather alerts throughout the United States where in effect at bottom adjacent to the loop images.

Some affiliates continue to display a banner ticker placed at the lower third of the screen that was used universally until February 27, 2015, which places the affiliate bug on the top left side; the current time, and city and segment information adjacently on the upper fringe; current weather conditions (showing only sky condition, actual and apparent temperature, and wind speed/direction), 24-hour and three-day forecasts on the bottom left two-thirds; and the radar loop on the right side (a full-screen segment version of the loop was shown as well, immediately between segments during each national weather block until February 27, 2015).

Availability

Broadcast television

As of January 2015, WeatherNation TV has current or pending affiliation agreements with 35 television stations in 33 media markets encompassing 21 states and the District of Columbia. WeatherNation is carried primarily on digital subchannels of broadcast television stations, and is carried on the digital tiers of select cable providers at the discretion of a local affiliate of the network in most markets. Most of its affiliates are full-power television stations, however WeatherNation is carried on low-power stations – mainly through translators of full-power stations that carry the network – in some areas. The national feed's carriage on certain cable and satellite providers is WeatherNation's sole method of distribution in markets where an over-the-air affiliate is not present.

WeatherNation affiliates, specifically those that operate a news department, have the option of breaking away from the network's programming to carry regularly scheduled programming from the station's primary feed – particularly, programs carried by the station's primary network affiliation – on the subchannel in order to accommodate breaking news or severe weather coverage, or telecasts of locally produced or syndicated sports events on the primary channel (depending on WeatherNation's subchannel placement and the station's carriage of additional subchannel services, especially those affiliated with a major network such as The CW or MyNetworkTV).

Although WeatherNation TV maintains a high-definition feed, its broadcast affiliates carry the network in 480i standard-definition in its default 16:9 widescreen format in order to preserve bandwidth to transmit the station's primary channel in high-definition; the HD feed is generally exclusive to certain pay television providers at their preference.

Pay television

WeatherNation TV's national feed began to be carried on satellite provider DirecTV on channel 361 on December 16, 2013; the provider reached a temporary carriage agreement with the network while it was renegotiating its contract with The Weather Channel (which was carried on channel 362).^[12] After DirecTV dropped The Weather Channel on January 14, 2014 due to the reasons behind Dish Network's planned removal of the channel in May 2010, the provider replaced The Weather Channel on channel 362 with WeatherNation,^[13] which lasted until The Weather Channel and DirecTV struck a new carriage agreement on April 8, 2014 that restored TWC on channel 362; however, WeatherNation TV continues to be carried on channel 361 as a result of a long-term carriage agreement it signed with DirecTV on April 2, one week prior to The Weather Channel agreement.^[14]

On April 21, 2015, WeatherNation reached an agreement with Dish Network to be offered to its customers as a six-week preview, and then added to Dish's America's Top 120 programming packages.^[15]

Internet-capable devices and digital media receivers

WeatherNation's programming is streamed live^[16] on the network's website, on its Android and Apple mobile apps as well as apps on select Samsung, LG and Sony Smart TVs and Blu-ray players.^{[17][18][19][20]} WeatherNation launched a channel on the Roku streaming player on September 13, 2013, and on Xbox 360 on October 7, 2014; the channels provide WeatherNation's live national feed, on-demand video, and local current weather conditions and forecasts.^[21][22]

References

External links

• Official website