The Weather Cast was a short-lived

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

seen exclusively on

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

. The channel was devoted solely to

weather forecasts Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th centu ...

from across the United States, and was a direct competitor to

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...

(owned by

NBC Universal The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

, and

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...

). The service was owned by

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

-based

WeatherNation WeatherNation TV (branded on-air as simply WeatherNation) is an American terrestial television, broadcast, streaming media, digital streaming, cable television, cable, and satellite television, satellite television network owned by WeatherNatio ...

The channel was operated for only four days.

Background

The channel launched on Dish Network channel 213 on May 20, 2010. The next day, on May 21, 2010, Dish Network announced that it would be eliminating The Weather Channel from its lineups in favor of The Weather Cast, citing rights fees (The Weather Channel requested a rate increase from 11 cents per subscriber to 12 cents, a nine percent increase, totalling $140,000 per month for all Dish subscribers) and The Weather Channel's decision to move toward movies and other entertainment programming. Dish Network and The Weather Channel reached an agreement to continue carriage of The Weather Channel on May 24, 2010,DISH Network and The Weather Channel Reach Agreement
The Weather Channel press release May 24, 2010 even though Dish's concerns about programming remained only partially addressed (the Friday-night movie that was particularly unpopular with viewers was removed, but instead replaced with more entertainment programming). This agreement led to the discontinuation of The Weather Cast, making it one of the shortest-lived television channels in history. The agreement also led to The Weather Channel to produce a local

Weatherscan Weatherscan was an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by Allen Media Group. A spinoff of The Weather Channel, Weatherscan featured uninterrupted local weather information in graphical format on a continuous loop that ...

-style weather information channel for Dish Network, as this advisory indicated on The Weather Cast's channel after its demise: At 5:30 P.M. Eastern Time, the screen was replaced with a message saying this: As of June 1, 2010, DISH Network channel 213 was off the air, with no indication when or if the locally based TWC channel would launch. 213 would later be replaced by WEATI (The Weather Channel's interactive program). On March 30, 2011,

announced that they will be relaunching their national weather

TV network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...

, now as

WeatherNation TV WeatherNation TV (branded on-air as simply WeatherNation) is an American broadcast, digital streaming, cable, and satellite television network owned by WeatherNation, Inc, a subsidiary of Performance One Media and ultimately owned by Robert J. ...

References

External links

WeatherNation TV
regarding the channel's launch
WeatherNation TV live on Ustream
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weather Cast Defunct television networks in the United States Weather television networks Television channels and stations established in 2010 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2010 Dish Network