Tuesday, January 14, 2014

DirecTV embraces Weather Nation, drops Weather Channel


DirecTV and its 20 million customers woke up Tuesday morning without The Weather Channel and embraced WeatherNation after a failure to reach a contract agreement by the Monday midnight deadline.

My family discovered WeatherNation in December where they had -- ready for it? -- weather all the time! We immediately started tuning in at all hours of the day and night.

The Weather Channel was drifting further and further from, well, weather. A reportedly 40 percent of its programming is now made up of reality TV such as The Prospectors and Alaska Coast Guard.  Not to mention the political implications of wading into the global warming debate, something TWC has embraced.

I'll miss the weather personalities at TWC but not the channel. It has drifted from its original intent which is where the WeatherNation picks up and carries on. Let's face it ... we tune in for weather, not personalities.

DirecTV is still in talks with TWC but at our house we've already moved on. If an agreement is reached between the two, I hope DirecTV will keep the WeatherNation as an alternative because the Weather Channel has proven that weather is no longer its first priority.

- See also The Weather Channel is practically useless anymore

1 comment:

Jebb said...

I haven't heard anything The Weather Channel has to say about global warming, but it's sad that that's any part of this discussion.