The Slow Decline of The Weather Channel

[TMC]

Due to the rise of cord cutting and the ability to check the weather at any time on phones and other devices, The Weather Channel has become more redundant over the years unless they are covering a major storm event such as a hurricane or tornado outbreak.

Over the years, even more reality shows having little to no tie to the weather or nature whatsoever have been added to the lineup as filler programming whenever TWC was not showing live coverage. Not to mention competitors such as WeatherNation also reporting on the weather 24 hours a day without any filler programming, but the downside being late night and early mornings using footage that was taped prior.

Even though the 2013 Rebrand "Weather All The Time" or "It's Amazing Out There" was full of life and revitalized TWC's image, the graphics and local forecast were totally downgraded and this was the beginning of the end for TWC. The “America’s #1 Weather Network” slogan they briefly used around 2019-2020 wasn’t bad, but was abandoned too quickly in favor of "Get into the out there" which pushed reality programming even more, resulting in TWC slipping even more into channel decay.

Another topic tackled in this video is that the reality shows like Highway Thru Hell and FAST: Home Rescue are aired way too much during primetime, meanwhile the quality longform documentary-style shows actually having to do with weather are reduced to graveyard slots such as Storm Stories and So You Think You'd Survive. Oh yeah, the latter is lost media for now because it's not available to watch anywhere in the US.

Also happy 42nd birthday, The Weather Channel!

[1960'sTVfan]

One issue I have with The Weather Channel is the over abundance of commercials. They can be covering active severe weather that's happening, and every few minutes they have to break away for commercials, it's a joke.

The channel was better in it's earlier days when all they did was cover the weather 24/7 live from the studio and I believe there were fewer commercials then too. Nowadays, with the over abundance of commercials and these useless side programs they run when they're not live from the studio covering the weather, the channel is mostly garbage.

[Dead2009]

If nothing's happening I have no problem with the Weather Channel showing weather related shows. There's only so much you can say when it's just raining and nothing of real importance is actively taking place. Now if it's a blizzard/tornado outbreak/hurricane, they're one of the best in covering it.

[1960'sTVfan]

I can understand them running those side programs when there isn't active weather going on, I'm just not a fan of those side programs and would prefer the 24/7 live studio coverage like it used to be.

Their severe weather coverage is decent enough but it frequently gets interrupted with commercials. Recently I was watching TWC while some severe weather was going on, they were covering a storm with a tornado on the ground causing damage, and right in the middle of the reporting they broke away for 3 to 4 minutes of commercials. When there is severe weather like that happening it should be continuous coverage with no commercials. It seems to me that ad revenue is more important to TWC than actually covering the weather.

[Dude111]

TWC has become crap...........

[Hawkee]

I cannot figure out how on earth that there is a channel all about the weather and I can't figure out how The Weather Channel is still surviving in TV. My first view of The Weather Channel was when my father was on a business trip and the hotel where Mom and I stayed had The Weather Channel and we would watch it every morning to see how the weather forecast would be for that day. And I would have to say if you wanted to know how the weather was in other states it was smart but I remember when The Weather Channel would show the local weather report for the city in a ticker tape format while a state weather report would show. "For example it would say " Today's weather conditions for Austin or Today's weather for Las Vegas" and it was a smart idea that The Weather Channel used in it's early years. But I think once weather based channels started appearing such as FOX Weather The Weather Channel knew it would have competition with FOX Weather and the weather reports on local news broadcasts and so they knew that they would have to change their image to retain their audience to survive. And so that's why you see so many shows about weather and shows like Storm Chasers. But I think The Weather Channel should do is buy Outside Magazine and transform themselves into Outside Television because if you ever read Outside Magazine the magazine talks about stories about weather and hurricanes and storms and all other parts of nature and it would be a smart thing for The Weather Channel

[Dead2009]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

in a ticker tape format while a state weather report would show. "For example it would say " Today's weather conditions for Austin or Today's weather for Las Vegas" and it was a smart idea that The Weather Channel used in it's early years.

It...still does that lol.

[Hawkee]

Yesterday I found The Weather Channel on Frindly TV and I still can't believe why they exist and what I mainly think why The Weather Channel changed it's image was so they could focus on reality shows with the subject of weather but if you see it today the local weather report that they used to show in the ticker tape format on the bottom of the screen is gone and now the new ticker tape like format shows weather for all cities not the personalized local weather report for the city it's being shown in. Because as I mentioned The Weather Channel used to show the personalized local weather report for the city like "today's weather for Reno Nevada" or today's weather for Dallas Texas" and they should've kept that format. Another thing I observed on The Weather Channel is too much commercials and the commercials that The Weather Channel shows are commercials for health and illnesses and medical insurance and car insurance commercials. And when I saw this I got shocked and how The Weather Channel ended up with a format like this is weird. I wouldn't be surprised if The Weather Channel goes belly up in a few years down the line because I secretly think they will launch a second channel that's all-weather reports and the original channel will change it's name and focus on science and weather related documentaries as an attempt to appeal to a wider audience

[Dude111]

Ya the weather channel is now worthless garbage..