Description
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by the Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Entertainment Studios. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news and analysis, along with documentaries and entertainment programming related to weather. A sister network, Weatherscan, is a digital cable and satellite service that offers 24-hour automated local forecasts and radar imagery.
The Weather Channel's former parent company, the Weather Company (part of IBM since 2016), also provides forecasts for terrestrial and satellite radio stations, newspapers, mobile apps and websites, including an extensive online presence at weather.com. The Weather Channel continues to license its brand assets and weather data from IBM.
As of September 2018, the Weather Channel was received by approximately 79.128 million households that subscribe to a pay television service throughout the United States.
Over the years, attempts to broadcast international versions of TWC – apart from the Australian version of the Weather Channel (now Sky News Weather Channel) – have failed. TWC also operates websites that provide localized forecasts in Brazil, France, Germany, India, Latin America and the United Kingdom, but some of these sites apparently have not been developed further since 2003. the Weather Channel also shares radar imagery and forecasts with the Weather Network in Canada, particularly for the Weather Channel's Canadian forecasts.
A U.K. version of the Weather Channel operated from September 1, 1996 to January 30, 1998, when it was shut down due to low viewership. It shared channel space with Sky Movies Gold/Sky Box Office 2, The Racing Channel and Galavision, airing for five hours a day. It was designed for cable as it had local weather information for specific regions; in some areas, it was carried on cable providers 24 hours a day.
TWC also operated the Weather Channel Latin America, a Spanish-language network serving Mexico, Puerto Rico and South America. This network launched in 1996 and an accompanying Brazilian Portuguese-language feed launched in 1998; it ceased operations on December 20, 2002 due to budget cuts. The channel's three original on-camera weather presenters were Paola Elorza, Sal Morales, and Mari Carmen Ramos; all three left the channel within a year of its launch and respectively went on to work for Univision in Miami, Telemundo in Los Angeles, and CNN International in Atlanta.
