Story from the Associated Press last week:
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Weather Channel to air movies for first time
"The Perfect Storm," of course.
The George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg movie about a horrific
storm off the New England coast will air on Oct. 30, the 18th anniversary of
the actual storm. Network executives had been thinking about adding movies, and
the timing proved too good to pass up, said Geoffrey Darby, the network's chief
programmer.
The network in recent years gradually slipped in longer
programming, including a morning show hosted by Al Roker, to complement its
constantly rotating forecasts.
"The Perfect Storm" begins a four-week period in
which The Weather Channel will try some Friday night movies.
The films are either weather-themed or have plots in which
weather plays a key role, Darby said. Meteorologist Jennifer Carfagno will host
movie night and offer commentary.
Other movies include the documentary "March of the
Penguins," the thriller "
The weather angle is pretty clear in "The Perfect
Storm," but "Misery"? Darby noted the nightmare endured by James
Caan's character begins with a blinding snowstorm.
For The Weather Channel, the risk lies in alienating its
regular weather-obsessed viewers, who tune in for news of high pressure systems
rather than high drama. The potential reward is that new fans will tune in, and
they'll stay on the station for a longer period, pleasing advertisers.
Darby said most viewers on Friday night aren't interested
in much more than the weekend forecast, and that will be updated on the screen
six times an hour.
"It's a way to respond to at least a significant
portion of our audience that says, `Let's expand the definition of
weather,'" he said.
The idea predates NBC Universal's purchase of The Weather Channel, Darby said. None of the first four movies are distributed by NBC Universal.
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It's official... the Weather Channel has gone the way of MTV, which has long since given up on playing music videos. It makes sense from a business perspective to keep people watching longer than the usual 5-10 minutes for the forecast (which is also why they overhype any significant weather event as well). But it continues to erode the original core mission of the Weather Channel, which was providing a 24/7 place to turn for a national or local forecast.
I shouldn't complain, since they're a competitor (in theory), but it's another sign of the changing media landscape. It's funny that even as outlets become more fragmented, there still seem to be few truly original ideas out there. I can see a scenario a few months down the road where The Weather Channel introduces "TWC2," which might on occasion still show a weather forecast!
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