Verizon is dropping The Weather Channel from its FiOS TV service, reporting that more and more customers are getting their weather information on phone apps and online.
Verizon reports that the The Weather Channel’s contract ran out and was not renewed for its 5.6 million Verizon FiOS TV customers.
Verizon is still offering weather channels on TV. On Tuesday it launched the new AccuWeather Network on one channel. Verizon has a WeatherBug “widget” on another TV channel.
Accuweather TV Announcement: AccuWeather and Verizon are bringing the AccuWeather Network — the only “All Weather, All the Time” source for 24/7 weather broadcasts in HD — to FiOS TV today.
The Weather Channel says it’s disappointed that it was pulled while negotiating a contract renewal. It says Verizon doesn’t want to negotiate further. The Weather Channel says it has recently renewed agreements with Cox and Time Warner Cable, two of the country’s biggest cable providers. The Weather Channel is also available on Comcast in suburban Chicago and RCN in Chicago.
As of February 2015, The Weather Channel was received by approximately 97,304,000 American households that subscribe to a pay television service (83.60% of U.S. households with at least one television set). The Weather Channel has the highest national distribution of any U.S. cable channel, but viewership has been declining for several years.
The Weather Channel probably involves the most expensive contract to cable TV providers, but with increasing competition, The Weather Channel has lost it luster with some cable TV providers. The Weather Channel has the most visually appealing graphics with comprehensive information, but critics have panned The Weather Channel for its emphasis on reality TV, such as a show about gold mining. Critics from everyday users to media analysts say that The Weather Channel should remain focused on its most valuable product — weather information and forecasting. Viewers have criticized The Weather Channel for broadcasting reality TV when severe weather is ongoing. These viewers believe The Weather Channel should switch out of the reality TV programming into full-time coverage when severe weather hits.
Former Chicago-area meteorologist John Coleman co-founded The Weather Channel in 1981. Coleman, who had been a comical but respected meteorologist in the Chicago market and ABC’s Good Morning America, quickly left The Weather Channel after a disagreement about how to develop The Weather Channel.
The Weather Channel was founded on July 18, 1980, by John Coleman and Frank Batten, then-president of the channel’s original owner Landmark Communications (now Landmark Media Enterprises). The Weather Channel launched at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 2, 1982. Originally, regional and local information was obtained by the National Weather Service for broadcast. Since 2002, all TWC forecasting has been done on station in Atlanta.
On July 6, 2008, NBC Universal, Bain Capital and Blackstone Group agreed to jointly purchase The Weather Channel from Landmark.
In 2012, The Weather Channel Companies bought Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Weather Underground (wunderground.com), which is a comprehensive weather site for serious weather fans, and is known as the first commercial weather website. The wunderground.com name was the 2,000th domain ever taken. When the merger was announced and the changeover occurred, critics were not pleased with The Weather Channel influence on the wunderground.com, and feared further degradation of wunderground.com. So far wunderground.com has kept its brand, and was recently given cleaner, modernized design.
Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service that operates over a fiber-optic communications network. Verizon FiOS is available in most of the Northeast, Indiana, Florida, Texas, and California. In 2013 word in the technology world was that Verizon FiOS plans for expansion into other states, including Illinois, had stalled.
AccuWeather Promotion Video: More than one billion people worldwide rely on AccuWeather every day for weather forecasts with Superior Accuracy™. See all of the ways AccuWeather helps people’s lives, including online at accuweather.com, apps, radio, television, newspapers, and more. AccuWeather is the world’s largest and fastest-growing weather media company, committed to providing All Weather, All the Time™ for nearly 3 million locations worldwide.
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