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NBC Closing Weather Plus

tripinva

tripinva

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/10/nbc_shutting_down_weather_plus.php

I expect the O&Os to replace it with the local news initiative that NBC is working on in New York, maybe with NewsRaw in the mean time. How about the affils? I imagine some of them will move to Universal Sports and others to in-house weather packages... any other ideas? (I doubt any will kill the sub and give it back to the HD, as much as that might make some of us happy)

- Trip
 
It sounds like Weather Plus was going to be shut down regardless of whether or not NBC Universal purchased The Weather Channel. We knew it would be shut down after the acquisition.

Weather Plus is a JV of NBC Universal and the local affilates board (the owners of the NBC affiliates). I suspect the service will not be replaced with TWC, WeatherScan, or anything else.

WXIA/Atlanta can't keep their Weather Plus equipment operational. I don't know how much trouble the other affilates have with their equipment, but that might have also been a factor.
 
KML-224 said:
Well with that recent sale, I can't say I'm surprised.
Click to expand...

Same here. How could you think differently when Al Roker was plugging the Weather Channel at the end of his weather segment?
 
This is bullcrap man, I mean I just got DTV too. About 5 or 6 months ago not knowing that Flat Screen had DTV. ;D
 
what is going to Happen to The Local Weather Plus Channel
 
Home Shopping Channels.

Isn't that the "killer app" for selling people on Free, Over-the-Air, Local, Digital Television?
 
I guess people have forgotten the promise of more programming, and more channels, if we got this HDTV system? Here's a thought, why don't the affiliates put some original local programming on. No, wait. That would cost money...never mind.
 
kyscott said:
I guess people have forgotten the promise of more programming, and more channels, if we got this HDTV system? Here's a thought, why don't the affiliates put some original local programming on. No, wait. That would cost money...never mind.
Click to expand...

Why not air some stuff from the archives that are gathering dust?
 
Despite what they are saying, I would say this is directly related to NBC buying the TWC. It may be tht NBC wanted the TWC because WeatherPlus was deficient. Now that they have it, what need do you even have for WeatherPlus? It is not hard to imagine that NBC might offer TWC to some affiliates if they want it, But truth be told, there's no need. For me, the WeatherPlus channel was a waste of space. Most of the national content was small recorded stuff. Same for the local affiliate. When we had severe weather, there WAS NO LIVE COVERAGE, just the continued pre-recorded forcasts, and automated radar views... The local accuweather channel is much better.
 
kenglish said:
Home Shopping Channels.
Click to expand...

Heavens, no. Let's try something that might make more sense, like exploit your network's most expensive, exhaustive and extensive product: The Olympics. Remember Universal Sports? The former WCSN? Here's a glorious opportunity for the Peacock to expand its Olympic franchise to a year-round presence.

They've got all the Olympic sports. They've been running replays of Beijing. Get it out there, Peacock, while you can!

(And I am aware one non-NBC station in Reno has already snapped it up.)
 
Joe_Capitano said:
kenglish said:
Home Shopping Channels.
Click to expand...

Heavens, no. Let's try something that might make more sense, like exploit your network's most expensive, exhaustive and extensive product: The Olympics. Remember Universal Sports? The former WCSN? Here's a glorious opportunity for the Peacock to expand its Olympic franchise to a year-round presence.

They've got all the Olympic sports. They've been running replays of Beijing. Get it out there, Peacock, while you can!

(And I am aware one non-NBC station in Reno has already snapped it up.)
Click to expand...

I completely disagree. There is nothing more boring than watching tired old Olympic coverage repeated over and over. I couldn't even stomach watching the Olympics when they were live. Hopefully WNBC 4-2 will replace the olympic stuff with their 24/7 news channel coming in November.
 
I lived in Nashville Tennessee a little over 10 years ago. WTVF had a brilliant idea where as they had a channel on the local cable system and they actually programmed it with local news and interest stuff. They also re-ran the newscasts for those of us that worked odd hours and were not in front of a TV set at 5, 6 or 11 o'clock.

Here's an idea, and i know it's crazy but just stay with me. Why can't local affiliated to this on their digital subchannels? Why don't these stupid broadcasting companies realize that if they give us a reason to watch, we will.
 
ansky212 said:
I completely disagree. There is nothing more boring than watching tired old Olympic coverage repeated over and over.
Click to expand...

Actually, contrary to how I may have painted it, they're not rerunning Beijing coverage all the time. They are covering a number of events, such as the World Marathon Majors (Chicago, Beijing and New York coming up), cycling, the World Cup of Skiing, etc. Check their schedule page and you see how diversified they actually are.

There's also no requirement to carry Universal Sports 24/7, either. There's room for localism. KNBC is splitting its NewsRAW subchannel, for instance.
 
kyscott said:
I lived in Nashville Tennessee a little over 10 years ago. WTVF had a brilliant idea where as they had a channel on the local cable system and they actually programmed it with local news and interest stuff. They also re-ran the newscasts for those of us that worked odd hours and were not in front of a TV set at 5, 6 or 11 o'clock.

Here's an idea, and i know it's crazy but just stay with me. Why can't local affiliated to this on their digital subchannels? Why don't these stupid broadcasting companies realize that if they give us a reason to watch, we will.
Click to expand...
They don't mention it on their website (that I am aware of) but that's what WRTV 6 tries to do here in the Indianapolis area. They have a digital subchannel 6.2, which is carried on digital cable as well, and marketed as "6 News 24/7" - it's a loop of local news, weather (on the 6's, natch), and national news from CNN. There is an ever-present ticker of local news as well. The channel no longer carries full newscasts (AFAIK) but the loop is still great to quickly catch up on local news. Also, this channel carries events of local or national importance, that are not so important to be carried on the main channel 6.1. Such as political convention coverage, live appearances by celebrities and/or politicians in the local area, etc. They carry 90 minutes of McGraw-Hill's ancient "At The Zoo" on Saturday & Sunday mornings to fulfill E/I requirements. I would guess this is the only time each week that this channel carries regularly scheduled programming of 30 minutes or more in length.

Also, our NBC affiliate, WTHR, never became a part of Weather Plus, but instead has had, and continues with, its own "SkyTrak Weather Network" which carries a loop of newscasts, weathercasts, etc. with an L-bar just like Weather Plus, containing news headlines, forecasts, current conditions, doppler radar, etc. Furthermore, SkyTrak Weather Network carries an assortment of cast-off, rerun, syndicated, E/I, and infomercial programming. NBC gems such as "Early Today" and weekend hours of "Today" may be found alongside "Storm Stories" syndicated from TWC, a few church/religious paid programs, and even regularly scheduled (weekly) infomercial slots held by various local businesses. The station also carries many WTHR newscasts on a delayed basis. The noon news is carried at 1 PM, the 6 PM news is carried at 7 PM, and there is a 10 PM newscast originated on SkyTrak. However, the 10 PM cast occasionally consists of little more than a live weather update, then back to the usual news/weather loop. I guess there are some slow news days, but other days longer pieces have been shown at 10 PM as well. E/I programming consists of an assortment of the usual suspects "Ultimate Choice" and "Real Life 101" among others shown at the kid-friendly timeslot of 12:30 PM Mon-Fri. On weekends, some Qubo programming may also be seen.
 
kyscott said:
I guess people have forgotten the promise of more programming, and more channels, if we got this HDTV system? Here's a thought, why don't the affiliates put some original local programming on. No, wait. That would cost money...never mind.
Click to expand...

To be fair, it's easy to spend someone else's money. Successful models for the subchannels probably will emerge over time, but it won't happen at the drop of a hat. Some of the filler there now may end up being what paves the way for a more robust model as people gradually come to know about the channels.
 
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