The "everything BUT the Weather Channel" (tornado, average, 2013)

[Christina311]

Is anyone else getting sick of all the new reality shows, most of which are not even weather related? Shows about truckers,gold prospectors, lifeguards, etc. Or the stuff on their bloated spammy web site? I just went there and was greeted with a picture slideshow of the "world's deadliest fish".

WTF Weather Channel? There's enough of this stuff on what used to be the history channel. Even HGTV dumped all the design shows and now it's all reality shows about real estate.

Remember back in the day when MTV stopped playing music? The M used to stand for MUSIC like the W stands for weather.

Or does it??

[313 TUxedo]

This has happened all across the cab;e/satellite TV industry, music channels with no music, weather channels with no weather, news channels with no news (just political debate).

How is someone looking for gold dust in 2013 "history"? Exactly what are we "learning" from Honey Boo Boo?

[Christina311]

The only thing I'm learning is that I need to cancel my cable soon! Over the years I've kept upgrading to more channels because all the regular ones had nothing but crap. But I could always count on finding some kind of history or science show, or I could just turn on the weather or news to have something on in the background (I rarely ever just sit and watch tv). For the past few years that option is gone. My screensaver is more entertaining.

[NWNJ]

TWC was fine until NBC took over in 2008. Since then they've just been hyping things up, airing TV shows that don't even have to do with weather, and doing stupid things like naming winter storms. And not to mention that they fired most of the good meteorologists and replaced them with crappy ones that barely know anything about weather and either hype up storms so much and/or just joking and fooling around the whole time.

[easternerDC]

I think like MTV - music all the time and weather all the time are not drawing people in. There is only so much you can do 24 hours a day related to forecasting.

[Patricius Maximus]

I used to really like The Weather Channel, and for the first few years after NBC took over I think they improved, with a recent peak in quality in early 2011, but since August 2011 they've done more than slide on the slippery slope - they've dropped off the cliff. Local forecasts are stripped-down and infrequent, the music is trashy, weather coverage is of less quality, and there's more of those stupid reality TV shows. The reason I tuned into TWC to begin with and not MTV, TruTV, or USA was because I wanted to watch weather, not reality TV. Now that the weather aspect is vanishing I watch TWC less and less, with the exception of when major storms are hitting. With the exception of their Weather in Motion map, their website is also on a decline in terms of user-friendliness, and I'm making more use of alternatives. Unless something drastic changes, this time frame will be remembered as the twilight era of The Weather Channel.

Originally Posted by easternerDC

I think like MTV - music all the time and weather all the time are not drawing people in. There is only so much you can do 24 hours a day related to forecasting.

It drew plenty of people in for the first 20 years, and instead of keeping up with the times and offering coverage unmatched by anywhere else (including the internet), they squandered their lead and their identity. They could have been something like the Turner Classic Movies of weather, but they choose to dilute their brand and their quality. There are dozens of options for reality TV, but nothing for people who want weather. What is the point of having and maintaining a weather channel if it's just the same as everything else? Reality TV fans have far better sources for their entertainment than TWC could ever hope to be. Channel drift almost always fails in its objective because the core viewers tune out and only a small portion of the general audience tunes in, which ends up going nowhere in terms of ratings, but at the great cost of feeding into a homogenization of cable TV that ultimately serves no one's interests.

[ilovemycomputer90]

TWC is pure garbage now days. I used to watch it all the time, but now I may tune in a few times a year at most, if that.

TWC yesterday:


Weather Channel Weekend Outlook 1998 - YouTube

vs. TWC today:


Blooper: Stephanie Abrams Talks Dirty - YouTube

[AdriannaSmiling]

I actually like reality shows. If I want straight weather, I can go to a weather website. Internet is a lot better for facts/information. TV is better for entertainment.

[Bo]

The Weather Channel is now owned by NBC. NBC wants people to stick around for more than 10 minutes for the next "Local on the 8s" when they tune in TWC. That's why the channel features so many reality shows. Average viewers are more likely to stick around through commercials to see what happens to the family in the path of the tornado than they are for the next round of maps summarizing weather around the country.

Originally Posted by AdriannaSmiling

I actually like reality shows. If I want straight weather, I can go to a weather website.

Bingo. The Weather Channel of 1980s and 1990s depicted in post #7, with its neverending cavalcade of maps, would have trouble attracting the same audiences of hardcore weather buffs. Those people are now mainlining weather info on the web.

[Patricius Maximus]

The Weather Channel would have had to step up its game beyond a weather map marathon, by offering in-depth analysis that was engaging, informative, and interesting, as well as covering weather worldwide that other outlets miss, and reports from the field. The notion of TV being no good for information isn't supported by the fact that TWC's ratings spike during big storm events, because when people want to get weather they like that marathon of in-depth analysis, local forecasts, and field reports which no other outlet can provide. The fact that TWC primetime hasn't had a big explosion in ratings is yet another example of the failure of channel drift to produce results other than degeneration. The best response to new competition is to stay better than that new competition. TWC should have played up their weather coverage aspect to the extreme in the face of competition from the internet, so much so that if someone said "why not just get your weather information online?", another man would typically say "this coverage is much better than anything I can get online".