Weather Channel latest to launch on ‘Second Life’

Steve Safran March 10th, 2007

The Weather Channel has launched “Weather Island” inside Second Life. From the press release: The island will serve as a headquarters for The Weather Channel, host an extreme sports park as well as provide a destination to screen premiere episodes of the new program Epic Conditions. The Weather Channel joins Reuters and other real-life companies inside the virtual world. Full release…

PRESS RELEASE

The Weather Channel Launches Headquarters on Popular ‘Second Life’

Virtual Destination Provides Extreme Sport Challenges for SL Residents and
Premieres Episodes of The Weather Channel Programming

ATLANTA, March 9 /PRNewswire/ — The Weather Channel (TWC) today
announced the creation and launch of a virtual headquarters in the popular,
3D virtual world known as Second Life(R). “Weather Island” will be
available to visitors beginning today. The island will serve as a
headquarters for The Weather Channel, host an extreme sports park as well
as provide a destination to screen premiere episodes of the new program
“Epic Conditions.”

Second Life residents, four-and-a-half million strong, will experience
a fully interactive destination featuring adventures ranging from skiing
“Mount Epic” to mountain-biking the Moab Dessert. A “big wave” surfing
simulator will open soon and other attractions are still in development.
Premieres of shows from The Weather Channel will be hosted in Second Life,
showcasing an episode from the program “Epic Conditions” along with short
clips of other episodes. New episodes will be premiered on Fridays on
Weather Island and on the dedicated broadband channel located at
http://www.weather.com/epic prior to airing on the network.

The debut of Weather Island on Second Life is another example of The
Weather Channel embracing technology to reach weather enthusiasts. “Be it
with our unique and original cable programming, weather.com, our mobile or
our broadband efforts, we are constantly providing weather to our audience
in new and innovative ways,” says Debora Wilson, president, The Weather
Channel Companies. “With Second Life, we’re hopeful we can expose our brand
in an original and meaningful way. We also see Second Life as a potential
advertising platform for brands currently partnering with us.”

Features and Experiences on Weather Island

Each portion of Weather Island will offer the opportunity to interact
with other residents, take on extreme-sport challenges, as well as obtain
factual information about the real-world landscapes and climates that are
replicated on the island. The island offers a variety of dynamic weather
effects, from blizzard conditions in the mountains to torrential downpours
in the desert. These are the most complex weather systems ever created for
Second Life.

Weather HQ

A key destination on Weather Island is the Premier Amphitheatre, which
will provide sneak previews of the latest episodes of “Epic Conditions,” an
extreme-sports program premiering on The Weather Channel in March.
Residents can visit this stunning, outdoor venue which will host on-demand
video episodes of the Epic Conditions program. Other smaller video
screening facilities are scattered throughout the island.

Epic Conditions

The Epic Conditions portion of the Weather Channel’s Second Life
presence is the cornerstone of the experience, providing the most realistic
and intense “Extreme Conditions” experience available to date including
Epic Extreme Skiing, featuring Mount Epic. Also available at launch is the
Mountain Biking Moab Desert Challenge, situated in a highly-realistic
simulation of the Moab Desert. Rolling out shortly after launch of Weather
Island is the Hawaii Big Wave Surfing simulator.

Infinite Vision Media (IVM), a leader in virtual world development and
interactive experience design, partnered with The Weather Channel to create
the Second Life presence. Drew Stein, CEO of IVM explains, “IVM has been in
Second Life since the inception of the community and we can say with
certainty that The Weather Channel is entering the community in the most
strategic way - - from providing Second Life residents new experiences to
potentially offering companies new marketing venues.”