Weather Channel To Share With NBC Affiliates

[Tyler]

Saw this one coming a long time ago...


Weather Channel To Share With NBC Affiliates
Will give and grab content through "NewsChannel"
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/22/2009 10:14:49 AM EDT

NBC affiliates' weather content is getting a bit richer, as NBC's cable network Weather Channel has joined NBC NewsChannel, the back-end content sharing system that allows participating NBC affiliates to share footage of major breaking news with each other.

NBC affiliates chairman Michael Fiorile calls the system "a collaborative," where a station in the Midwest might grab footage of the major flooding occurring in Georgia. Affiliates nationwide can now get extreme weather footage from Weather Channel through NewsChannel.

"Weather Channel will make their live shots available to affiliates," says Fiorile, while affiliates do the same for Weather.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/354878-Weather_Channel_To_Share_With_NBC_Affiliates.php

[TWCToday]

I thought they were already doing something similar to this.

[WXAndrea]

^ ^ I thought they were, too.  Although, I thought they were offering up live shots with independent stations.  An independently-owned station where I used to work used to get live shots from them all the time during hurricane season.  It was kind of like the CNN reporter availability, or the network availability to their affiliates.

So, maybe this is just soley NBC affiliates, and no longer independent stations?

[TWCToday]

I have seen a lot more pre-taped stories on TWC (with pre-recorded narrations). So I suspect they are distributing these stories to stations more than before.

[Evan2015]

I have seen a lot more pre-taped stories on TWC (with pre-recorded narrations). So I suspect they are distributing these stories to stations more than before.

That's my guess, that makes sense

[cc17926]

It would always be great to see TWC's footage outreach extend to my local NBC station. Where TWC used to be a station of their own, now sharing their stories with affiliates, better bringing attention to TWC as a weather news authority than simply as an entity out there only extending as far as their inhouse staff.

[Localonthe8s]

It would always be great to see TWC's footage outreach extend to my local NBC station. Where TWC used to be a station of their own, now sharing their stories with affiliates, better bringing attention to TWC as a weather news authority than simply as an entity out there only extending as far as their inhouse staff.

I don't think there's anything really wrong with WCAU's weather staff....Glenn Schwartz is very popular

[Mike M]

It would always be great to see TWC's footage outreach extend to my local NBC station. Where TWC used to be a station of their own, now sharing their stories with affiliates, better bringing attention to TWC as a weather news authority than simply as an entity out there only extending as far as their inhouse staff.

Yah, I'm not really a big fan of channel 10's news/weather team.

[Spring Rubber]

I think I understand this a little better. This deal is about affiliates, not O&Os. TWC and O&Os obviously had been sharing resources for a while, but this deal was about non-NBC owned affiliates of the NBC network.

[WXAndrea]

^ ^ Makes sense.  I can't think they weren't getting video from non O&O affiliates beforehand, though.  I once worked for a FOX O&O, and while we could only get video and sound from IPUMP, we could still use a source called NNS to get video from other NNS affilates.  That means, if it was an NBC station involved with NNS, we could still use/get their video.  I'd be surprised if NBC was ONLY able to use O&O stuff until now.

Either way, I think this will help them tremendously.

ETA:  Maybe non-NBC O&O affiliates couldn't use TWC video?

[Spring Rubber]

Before this deal, TWC was getting video from affiliates of all networks; I'm assuming now it's narrowed down to just NBC affiliates.

[WXAndrea]

^ ^ I don't think they're only allowed to get video from just NBC affiliates.  They tend to take more live looks (weather cams) from NBC affils, but I think the video can come from all over.  As long as it's not embargoed to them and they get it via another news service.  But, they have to be a part of that service, as well as the other station they're "cherry picking" from.  (Example: NNS is a news service.  If TWC is a member, they can use video from ANY other station that's also a member of NNS, no matter its affiliation.)  I'm not explaining this very well, so I hope that makes sense...

Also, I work for an NBC affiliate, and during the Florida Freeze, we actually used a good deal of video from them.  Kind of sad, though, because I work in Florida...

[TWCToday]

^ ^ I don't think they're only allowed to get video from just NBC affiliates.  They tend to take more live looks (weather cams) from NBC affils, but I think the video can come from all over.  As long as it's not embargoed to them and they get it via another news service.  But, they have to be a part of that service, as well as the other station they're "cherry picking" from.  (Example: NNS is a news service.  If TWC is a member, they can use video from ANY other station that's also a member of NNS, no matter its affiliation.)  I'm not explaining this very well, so I hope that makes sense...

Also, I work for an NBC affiliate, and during the Florida Freeze, we actually used a good deal of video from them.  Kind of sad, though, because I work in Florida...

Makes sense! NBC affiliates are their preferred stations for live shots but I have seen a few segments from ABC affiliates in the past month or so.