Weatherscan

**Weatherscan** (originally from 1999-2003 as **Weatherscan Local**) is a defunct American digital cable and satellite television network owned by Los Angeles-based entertainment and global media company Entertainment Studios, owned and founded by businessman and comedian Byron Allen. A spinoff of The Weather Channel, Weatherscan features uninterrupted local weather information in graphical format on a continuous loop that is generated by an IntelliStar unit installed at the cable provider's headend; unlike The Weather Channel, Weatherscan does not feature on-air talent of any kind. Like The Weather Channel, Weatherscan is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

## Overview

The channel launched on March 31, 1999, as **Weatherscan Local**. Originally, Weatherscan operated five collective services for local weather information: Weatherscan Local featured animated weather information with a complete local weather segment every two minutes; Weatherscan Radar featured a continuous Doppler radar loop, along with severe weather advisories when warranted; Weatherscan Plus (debuted April 30, 1999) featured activity-specific forecasts for golf, skiing, boating, beachgoing, and business and leisure travel; Weatherscan Plus Traffic (May 31, 1999) featured the same format as Weatherscan Plus with the inclusion of traffic information; Weatherscan Español, which launched with Weatherscan Plus Traffic, was a Spanish-language version of Weatherscan Plus allowing regional or international weather information.

The IntelliStar unit used by Weatherscan is configured differently from that used by The Weather Channel, featuring different graphics and additional forecast products, with information running on a continuous basis. Vocal Local, a pre-recorded narration function installed in the IntelliStar system—which utilizes a different narration track than that used on The Weather Channel's Local on the 8s forecast segments, featuring a female announcer—introduces several of the segments.

At its prime, Weatherscan was available in many major markets around the United States, though its availability was not as widespread as that of parent network The Weather Channel. Many cable providers offer Weatherscan on their digital tiers, although a few providers carry Weatherscan on their basic tier (where The Weather Channel is also offered). In 2011, Dish Network became the first satellite provider to add Weatherscan.

Verizon FiOS dropped Weatherscan, along with parent network The Weather Channel, from its lineup at 12:00 a.m. on March 10, 2015 after the two parties were unable to come to terms on a new carriage agreement. The service has been replaced by the local WeatherBug "widget" in some markets. No public announcement was made regarding this issue until over 12 hours after the discontinuation. Verizon said its reason for dropping the services was because many customers turn to the internet and mobile apps for weather any time of day.

While the domestic IntelliStars were decommissioned and replaced by newer IntelliStar 2 units on November 16, 2015, the modified IntelliStar units are currently still active for Weatherscan.

With the rise of online weather information available both on computers and on mobile devices, the channel has seen decreased relevance through the 2010s. Comcast removed the channel from its Xfinity systems throughout the third quarter of 2017.

As of 2022, the channel has mostly been discontinued on major cable providers, however some Weatherscan units are still in operation by smaller cable operators. It has largely been replaced in function with Local Now.

In early 2022, an unofficial Weatherscan emulator was created to provide accurate weather information using the Weatherscan format. Unlike the televised version of Weatherscan, which only provides weather information for the United States and its territories, the emulator provides weather information for the entire world. In October-November 2022, the unofficial domain of Weatherscan was changed from .tk to .net, announcing that the .tk domain will be ceased.

## Sale to Entertainment Studios

On March 22, 2018, Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios announced its intent to acquire The Weather Channel's television assets from an NBCUniversal/Blackstone Group partnership. The actual value is undisclosed, but was reported to be around $300 million; the channel's non-television assets, which were separately sold to IBM two years prior, were not included in the sale.

## End of operations

In a letter to the National Cable Television Cooperative, which most remaining cable affiliates are part of, dated September 12, 2022, Weather Group Television announced that they would be terminating the Weatherscan service no later than December 9, 2022, with a preference to take it off the air sooner rather than later. Declining viewership, the availability of weather conditions and forecasts through computers as well as smartphone weather apps, and aging equipment were cited as the main reasons that the channel is going offline, making the operations of the once iconic service superfluous and duplicative. Those same reasons ultimately led to major television providers dropping the channel previously between March 2015 and December 2017. In addition, Weatherscan did not broadcast in HD, which is nearly general for television news and weather in the United States by the time of the shut-down announcement. The channel has largely been replaced in function with Local Now.

## Products

Weatherscan displays a variety of forecast products that show different types of weather information, some of which are not included on certain providers.

During the early 2000s, when the channel's segments were generated mainly by WeatherStar XL systems, up to five different products, excluding the local product, could be chosen for display.

## Timeline

*Note: "Domestic IntelliStar" refers to STARs that output content for The Weather Channel.*

## National/satellite feed

When Weatherscan Local debuted in 1999, the channel maintained a national feed that was used for satellite and smaller cable providers that could not afford a secondary and more technologically advanced WeatherStar system to use for a local Weatherscan feed. The national feed, branded as simply Weatherscan, debuted in July 1998, and ran current temperatures and extended forecasts for select cities throughout the United States, as well as national and regional radar images. There is uncertainty as to whether or not the national version was discontinued; however, since Weatherscan Local simplified its name to "Weatherscan" in 2003, it is likely the national feed was discontinued around that time.

A new Weatherscan feed launched on June 29, 2011, for Dish Network subscribers, replacing the short-lived service The Weather Cast that had been founded as a replacement for The Weather Channel as a result of a May 2010 carriage dispute with the satellite provider; the Weatherscan feed provides regionalized information for cities within 125 miles of a given area, and is delivered in the same manner as the Weatherscan systems on cable providers. Weatherscan was dropped on June 24, 2015, while WeatherNation took place for regional viewers.

## Gallery

### **Logos**

The old, classic Weatherscan Local logo, used from 1999 to 2003.The old Weatherscan logo with the old Weather Channel logo, used from 2003 to 2005.The original Weatherscan logo, used from September 2005 to March 2016 (light blue).Weatherscan logo (without The Weather Channel) used since March 2016 (light blue).The current Weatherscan logo, used since March 2016 (dark blue).Current Weatherscan logo (without The Weather Channel) used since March 2016 (dark blue).Sintopia Weatherscan logo (for the series).Sintopia Weatherscan logo (transparent background, for the series).
### **Images**

Weatherscan EmulatorWeatherscan EmulatorWeatherscan Emulator promoting the animated series based on the channel is coming to Sintopia.The Complete Weatherscan MusicThe Advanced Weatherscan MusicThe Advanced Weatherscan IntelliStar MusicWeatherscan: The Complete Music Collection
## References and sources

1. ↑ *Demonstrating The Realistic Weatherscan Online Emulation*, retrieved August 19, 2022.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Weatherscan". *weatherscan.tk*. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
3. ↑ "Weatherscan". *weatherscan.net*. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
4. ↑ "Weatherscan - Termination of Service". *www.nctconline.org*. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
5. ↑ After 23 years, Weather Channel’s iconic computerized channel is shutting down - *ARS Technology* (Published October 7, 2022)
6. ↑ Fernandez, Bob (November 14, 2017). "Xfinity ire: Comcast drops Weatherscan channel and triggers a hail storm". *Philadelphia Inquirer*. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
7. ↑ Sahil Patel (June 8, 2016). "The Weather Channel bets on streaming local news". *Digiday*. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
8. ↑ Freddy Flaxman (June 10, 2016). "Why Local Now Matters: Solving three problems with local TV news". *Medium*. A Medium Corporation. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
9. ↑ Chris Ariens (January 29, 2016). "How The Weather Channel Is Now Delivering News, Sports and Traffic". *Adweek*. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 3, 2017.

 Bold song titles are acquired to Weatherscan Musical.