Verizon FiOS has dropped The Weather Channel from its lineup, a change that the cable provider announced in an e-mail to its subscribers on Tuesday morning.
According to the e-mail, the channel’s carriage agreement with Verizon expired and has not been renewed. Verizon cites the changing habits of consumers in their reasoning for allowing the agreement to expire. “In today’s environment, customers are increasingly accessing weather information not only from their TV but from a variety of online sources and apps,” Verizon writes in the announcement.
But despite the trend toward digital in the consumption of weather information, Verizon is not getting rid of TV weather completely. In the same statement, they announced that they have launched the AccuWeather Network and have added WeatherBug to the lineup.
“Sounds like a pretty foolish move on their part,” longtime Weather Channel meteorologist and AMHQ cohost Jim Cantore said in a tweet on Tuesday morning.
The Weather Channel, which is owned in-part by Comcast, released an official statement on Verizon’s decision on Tuesday morning:
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We were disappointed when, without warning late yesterday, March 9, Verizon FiOS dropped The Weather Channel from their lineup while our companies continued to be in active conversations regarding a contract renewal. FiOS customers have enjoyed a bundle of services from The Weather Channel including the network, WeatherScan, On Demand, a Weather Widget and streaming on mobile devices.
During a winter with record-breaking storms and severe weather, The Weather Channel responded with non-stop live coverage, including the ongoing presence of our crews reporting live from hard-hit communities within the Verizon FiOS footprint. This coverage resulted in The Weather Channel being the only major cable network to grow in February.
After recently renewing carriage agreements with NCTC, Cox and Time Warner Cable, we are surprised Verizon FiOS would deny their subscribers access to the best live weather coverage and expertise that only The Weather Channel can provide. We urge FiOS customers to contact Verizon and voice their displeasure.
It’s been a rough patch for the 24/7 weather network, which has been broadcasting since 1982. In December 2013, the Weather Channel went to battle with DirecTV, which threatened to cut the network from its lineup. The disagreement revolved around carriage fees and the increasing amount of reality television in The Weather Channel’s repertoire, as well as consumers’ digital trends.
[Soul searching time for The Weather Channel]
“Our customers tell us The Weather Channel is their fourth choice when looking to access weather information,” DirecTV chief executive Mike White said in a letter to customers during the dispute. “They first turn to mobile devices and computers for instant weather information and then to local news sources that have a better grasp on local conditions.”
[Could Comcast, Time Warner merger suffocate weather competition?]
DirecTV and The Weather Channel eventually reached an agreement in April 2014, but concerns about programming continued. Originally known for its severe weather and hurricane coverage — as well as “local on the 8’s” — The Weather Channel of the 21st century has turned to reality-style television to fill the ratings void on slow weather days. “What management has … seen … is that on days when the weather is quiet, those shows get much better ratings than our regular weather coverage,” said TWC severe weather expert Greg Forbes on his Facebook page during the DirecTV dispute, “so that’s why TWC runs them.”
Rumblings of a TV-offering from AccuWeather have been building since DirecTV announced that it planned to drop The Weather Channel. “This is the first cable company to pick up the AccuWeather channel,” said AccuWeather chief executive Barry Lee Myers, who assures that the new channel is different than anything that’s currently offered. “It’s all weather, all the time. It does not contain reality television fluff, and it is focused on the markets who are watching it, and that will be a continuing theme.”
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Despite continued criticism of Weather Channel’s reality shows, Verizon’s rationale for dropping the channel appears to have little to do with the style of programming and more to do with viewer trends away from tradition television. This puts The Weather Channel, along with many of its cable TV counterparts, in the position of finding new ways to reach people and bring in revenue that are not necessarily tied to the channel.
But AccuWeather doesn’t seem to be concerned about the growing trend away from cable television, both in the weather space and in general. “[The channel] is taking advantage of our digital credentials,” Myers said. “We’re not concerned about the trend because we’re coming from a totally different perspective. Televisions are effectively turning into giant tablets, and you will be able to get this channel along with our rotating weather information on your TV or other devices, as well.”
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