Any update on the mysterious channel 213 "local weather" channel that was promised?

[sjvirchow]

Four days. That was how long The Weather Cast channel was broadcast on Dish Network. It sets a record. For anyone who missed it, here's what it looked like. YouTube - Weather Cast Channel

Now since we were told that Dish was developing a 24 hour local weather channel almost a year ago, and haven't heard anything since, can a Dish CSR provide any update if available? Hopefully if it ever comes into existence, it'll be comparable to what DirecTV and cable operators do in terms of local weather.

 

[Dah-Henny]

The CSR's could tell you, but then, of course, they'd have to kill you.

 

[Juan]

It never really existed..kinda like JR getting shot on Dallas..It was all a dream

 

[sjvirchow]

Ha! Either that or I'd have Charlie come and personally take the Dish off my house in the middle of the night.

 

[TonyT@DISH Network]

From what I understand the contract negotiations with TWC is what prompted the "mysterious" weather channel you speak of, if memory serves. The link I am providing is pretty much the same chronology of events I remember.

Wikipedia Link : The Weather Cast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I offered that link because there is no other information regarding Weather Cast available to me, internally or externally that I have found. The change was also supposed to happen on DISH Home (101) as well and I believe something similar to Weather Bug was supposed to go there, possibly related to Weather Cast as well. That, of course, was also nullified with the contract renewal on TWC. Hope this at least clears it up a bit.

 

[LER]

Didn't the PR for the TWC announcement say something about the new local stuff?

 

[sjvirchow]

I saw this too. YouTube - SPECIAL BULLETIN: TWC & DISH KISS & MAKE UP 5.24.10

 

[LER]

Here it is.

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.

Press Release/Source

Ok, Dish, it's almost the NEXT summer, where is it?

 

[sjvirchow]

"Despite the earlier announcement that The Weather Channel would be dropped, the channel was never officially removed from Dish Network. The Weather Cast was discontinued in anticipation of a Weatherscan-based service that would provide local weather information for Dish Network customers."

I've emailed that Press Release you linked to several times to Dish's CEO and the "Executive Team" wanting an answer to where it is. No response.

If DirecTV can pull this off: YouTube - TWC HD DirecTV Local Forecast - Same As Always for Tampa... (6/19/2010)

And cable can pull this off: YouTube - Weather Channel's New IntelliStar (October 2007)

What's keeping Dish from pulling this off?

This isn't local. YouTube - The Weather Channel - Satellite Local Forecast - 05/23/2008

If it's a weather scan based service, it might look like this. YouTube - Weatherscan - 1/31/10

That is if it ever exists.

 

[TonyT@DISH Network]

I'll check with my POC and see what I can dig up on this. Thanks for providing me with information, because at the time my access was limited.

 

[sjvirchow]

Thank you. I watched local on the 8s religiously when I had cable, but of course since Time Warner loves to jack up prices, I got Dish. I was very excited to see that we'd have an update to Dish's clunky, buggy, and slow current way of providing local weather (YouTube - Dish Network Local Weather by TWC) that most of the time freeze's, or completely restarts my, and many other's receivers, and to not hear a peep from Dish, or TWC regarding this, is quite frustrating.

 

[Willh699]

i think the reason why we don't have a local regional Weather Channel is the same reason why there isn't full 24/7 HD RSNs and that would be a lack of room on the satellites that are up in space right now. i'm sure they will come when Dish finally shuts down MPEG-2 technology receivers and channels.

 

[tedb3rd]

i think the reason why we don't have a local regional Weather Channel is the same reason why there isn't full 24/7 HD RSNs and that would be a lack of room on the satellites that are up in space right now. i'm sure they will come when Dish finally shuts down MPEG-2 technology receivers and channels.

Possible, but I would not think that's the primary reason. The bandwidth to send the weather maps and info to an app on the receiver would be nothing compared to what's delivered on just one HD channel. A video signal is 30fps (plus audio).. Take away the audio. Now assume that a radar animation loop had 12 frames. You could download/refresh full-screen HD res radar loops for every state in 20 seconds. I would think that the radar loop would be the largest bandwidth hog (if you can even call it that) and that's not much at all. ...They could send a refresh 'burst' every 5 minutes and still have plenty of time to spare where bandwidth needed = 0.

My guess is that it's either a software issue they're working out. ...or it's just not high on the priority list for TWC and/or Dish.

 

[sjvirchow]

Maybe... They could do it like DirecTV does it...

 

[sjvirchow]

@TonyT: any update?

 

[redelephants]

Just another empty promise from DISH. Lie to the customers so they don't jump ship for a service that already provides actual local weather.

 

[JohnL]

Just another empty promise from DISH. Lie to the customers so they don't jump ship for a service that already provides actual local weather.

Not an empty promise, its coming "Soon" ;>)

 

[Bobby]

If any sub jumps ship so they can get a weather channel, they deserve what they get.........

 

[redelephants]

If any sub jumps ship so they can get a weather channel, they deserve what they get.........

Not saying any sub will jump ship solely on local weather but all the small things start to add up.

 

[CK SatGuy]

Seriously I don't get what's the big deal with TWC. I understand that a promise is a promise, but frankly, I could care less about this. If this was the 1990s, I'd be with you guys, but nowadays, you can get the weather any time from the internet and your cell phones, so if you really want to know what your weather is today, it only takes like 2 minutes max to look it up.