Dish Network has rescinded plans to launch its own “Weather Cast” channel and announced Monday that it had come to terms on a new multi-year deal to continue carrying The Weather Channel.
“The deal provides for collaboration between both companies in developing state-of-the-art, full-time weather forecasting services designed specifically for satellite customers, including localized weather programming on Dish Network Ch. 213 (in addition to The Weather Channel’s main feed on Ch. 214), interactive TV applications, as well as new Internet and mobile services. Deployment of the new services will begin this summer,” said the joint announcement.
“Through this new partnership with The Weather Channel, Dish Network is giving our subscribers exactly what they’ve asked for and more. Not only are we developing a unique satellite service that provides localized weather 24/7, but also we’ll soon deliver personalized weather reports via the Android mobile platform and the web. This agreement recognizes the importance of cross-platform video delivery, ensuring that our subscribers will have the most detailed local weather information available at their fingertips anytime, anywhere,” said Dave Shull, Sr. Vice President of Programming for Dish Network.
“DISH Network and their customers are extremely important to us, and maintaining and expanding our partnership is a high priority for our company,” said Mike Kelly, CEO and President of The Weather Channel.
RBR-TVBR observation: As you’ve no doubt figured out, this was not so much about programming as money, despite Dish totally ignoring that issue in its public statement last week. Just like some retrans negotiations, this went down to the wire and was ultimately settled without consumers suffering any interruption of programming.
