The Forward Direction of TWC

[SamRichardson92]

Alright. I am creating this thread to clear up the confirmed future of TWC, this is going to be completely made out of the information that I can share publicly.

The Weather Channel - Late 2014 Early 2015
Many of you are speculating that there will be a relaunch this year, this isn't the case. It's going to be a very small, "blink and you will miss" it kind of changes.  Here is what I can say about that:

• There will be a push to make TWC more interactive, eventually completely removing the utilization of Chroma walls and using more walls monitors ad plasma's, as seen in the recent Severe coverage by using the large AMHQ video wall for the MAX weather graphics.
• More efforts will be made to make the Local On The 8's flow more smoothly and remove some of the common glitches around now - that's all I can say there.

The Studio

• Currently AMHQ shares the same large studio as Weather Center Live. There are some plans to extend that studio a bit and use it more extensively for both shows.

LFP
There are plans to livestream hyper local severe coverage on Youtube, which means if you have family in a severe area that TWC has done a local cut-in on, this will eventually be streamed online.

Let me know if you have any questions. I think I've cleared most of the rumors up.
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[yourweathertoday]

• There will be a push to make TWC more interactive, eventually completely removing the utilization of Chroma walls and using more walls monitors ad plasma's, as seen in the recent Severe coverage by using the large AMHQ video wall for the MAX weather graphics.

That worked so well the first time they tried it back in 2008-2011. Hopefully they implement it a bit better, if at all. Nothing beats the crispness of graphics superimposed directly onto a chroma plate.

[mightynine]

• There will be a push to make TWC more interactive, eventually completely removing the utilization of Chroma walls and using more walls monitors ad plasma's, as seen in the recent Severe coverage by using the large AMHQ video wall for the MAX weather graphics.

The only problem I have with that is the large video wall would work better as one screen, not a group of smaller screens. I find the lines distracting - and sometimes you can see how one screen isn't quite calibrated with the next, leading to some color variations.

But this is nit-picking, I imagine many viewers don't even notice.

[SamRichardson92]

• There will be a push to make TWC more interactive, eventually completely removing the utilization of Chroma walls and using more walls monitors ad plasma's, as seen in the recent Severe coverage by using the large AMHQ video wall for the MAX weather graphics.

The only problem I have with that is the large video wall would work better as one screen, not a group of smaller screens. I find the lines distracting - and sometimes you can see how one screen isn't quite calibrated with the next, leading to some color variations.

But this is nit-picking, I imagine many viewers don't even notice.

Yea that was a concern raised before that wall was even debuted. There are ways the graphic team has that make this look great. You should see it before that is done, everyone would notice, so even though you may nto see it, it's actually an improvement

[TWCmatthew]

I don't like the conecpt of dual feed. TWC says they'll only cut into longform programming for areas that are impacted by severe weather; but that only works for people who have cable and are served by a local Intellistar/Intellistar 2 JR/IntelliStar 2. What about those who have satellite, and may have limited or no internet access, and cannot view the live stream on Youtube? I would definitely change the channel to a more credible local station if that were the case. There are too many flaws with the dual feed system; and the severe weather cut-ins should be aired nationwide.

[SamRichardson92]

I don't like the conecpt of dual feed. TWC says they'll only cut into longform programming for areas that are impacted by severe weather; but that only works for people who have cable and are served by a local Intellistar/Intellistar 2 JR/IntelliStar 2. What about those who have satellite, and may have limited or no internet access, and cannot view the live stream on Youtube? I would definitely change the channel to a more credible local station if that were the case. There are too many flaws with the dual feed system; and the severe weather cut-ins should be aired nationwide.

From what I hear: work is being done with Sattelite providers to provide this local dual feed.

[jrhtwc]

I don't like the conecpt of dual feed. TWC says they'll only cut into longform programming for areas that are impacted by severe weather; but that only works for people who have cable and are served by a local Intellistar/Intellistar 2 JR/IntelliStar 2. What about those who have satellite, and may have limited or no internet access, and cannot view the live stream on Youtube? I would definitely change the channel to a more credible local station if that were the case. There are too many flaws with the dual feed system; and the severe weather cut-ins should be aired nationwide.

From what I hear: work is being done with Sattelite providers to provide this local dual feed.

Any talk of TWC working with DTV/DISH to get WATT during longform?

[alex979]

There will be a push to make TWC more interactive, eventually completely removing the utilization of Chroma walls and using more walls monitors ad plasma's, as seen in the recent Severe coverage by using the large AMHQ video wall for the MAX weather graphics.

I wonder why they think the use of large monitors and video walls make the network more interactive. It's still a meteorologist standing in front of maps and forecast graphics. What's wrong with a good chroma key wall?

[PAweatherman]

 The dual feed to needs to go period. If the TWC really cared about the viewers they would get rid of it and go nationwide when bad weather strikes no matter where it is.

[Eric]

The dual feed to needs to go period. If the TWC really cared about the viewers they would get rid of it and go nationwide when bad weather strikes no matter where it is.

Sadly, they see more money in longform, non-weather programming, and that's the kind of viewer they're trying to attract.  By limiting actual weather programming to specific areas only, the whole rest of the country gets to "enjoy" the non-weather shows that The Weather Channel considers its top priority.

[willh699]

I don't like the conecpt of dual feed. TWC says they'll only cut into longform programming for areas that are impacted by severe weather; but that only works for people who have cable and are served by a local Intellistar/Intellistar 2 JR/IntelliStar 2. What about those who have satellite, and may have limited or no internet access, and cannot view the live stream on Youtube? I would definitely change the channel to a more credible local station if that were the case. There are too many flaws with the dual feed system; and the severe weather cut-ins should be aired nationwide.

From what I hear: work is being done with Sattelite providers to provide this local dual feed.

Any talk of TWC working with DTV/DISH to get WATT during longform?

i like the idea of a "alternate channel" for The Weather Channel for Satellite providers so we can get the same coverage the cable providers get from Dual-feed

example, if there's a Tornado outbreak in the midwest but it's not significant enough for a live wall to wall on the main feed, then the main feed plays the schedule long form and the Alternate channel shows the same feed that's fed to cable providers in the markets affected in the path of the tornado outbreak.

if Dish and Direct can provide a alternate feed for the Regional sports networks and the ESPN Networks and MLB Network and NHL Network, they can try to the same for The Weather Channel.

[WeatherWitness]

I don't like the conecpt of dual feed. TWC says they'll only cut into longform programming for areas that are impacted by severe weather; but that only works for people who have cable and are served by a local Intellistar/Intellistar 2 JR/IntelliStar 2. What about those who have satellite, and may have limited or no internet access, and cannot view the live stream on Youtube? I would definitely change the channel to a more credible local station if that were the case. There are too many flaws with the dual feed system; and the severe weather cut-ins should be aired nationwide.

From what I hear: work is being done with Sattelite providers to provide this local dual feed.

Any talk of TWC working with DTV/DISH to get WATT during longform?

i like the idea of a "alternate channel" for The Weather Channel for Satellite providers so we can get the same coverage the cable providers get from Dual-feed

example, if there's a Tornado outbreak in the midwest but it's not significant enough for a live wall to wall on the main feed, then the main feed plays the schedule long form and the Alternate channel shows the same feed that's fed to cable providers in the markets affected in the path of the tornado outbreak.

if Dish and Direct can provide a alternate feed for the Regional sports networks and the ESPN Networks and MLB Network and NHL Network, they can try to the same for The Weather Channel.

Wouldn't it be more expensive for TWC to have an alternate channel than just pre-empt long-form on their main channel?  I mean, I know this has been mentioned several times, but if TWC wanted to go the direction of ESPN or FOX Sports by having two channels (well, I know ESPN has even more), then they could.  Maybe show long-form on TWC2 while live programming is on TWC1 and then use TWC2 for extended weather coverage when necessary while TWC1 is showing long-form.  But I honestly think that would be more expensive.  I am guessing by not showing long-form, they are losing money, however.  Plus, while I know this may be shocking to many of you, TWC may actually have viewers who regularly tune into their long-form.  So perhaps the idea of two channels wouldn't really make much of a difference in terms of expenses and actually be a good idea.  I don't know.