A terrific cover story in Broadcasting & Cable examines how the advent of long-range forecasts at local TV stations could be damaging their credibility. For example, the 10-day forecast, with specific predictions down to exact temperatures, is becoming standard issue at most stations. Dr. Anthony Socci, a senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society (AMS), says it’s like throwing darts. “(Meteorologists) are selling a skill that isn’t there, and they’re not being candid with viewers.” With internet weather growing in popularity (after all, why would you wait for a specific time to get your weather?) TV stations are pulling out all the stops with “endless rounds of one-upmanship” in technology, marketing and forecast tools.
We’ve written about this before, but I believe it’s critical that TV stations shift their thinking and spending from TV to the web when it comes to weather. Standard weather coverage on TV will no longer be a reason to watch (breaking weather coverage is a big exception), and people are shifting online in droves. So create powerful weather technology online that allows users to personalize their experience, and then extend that technology to TV. In other words, meteorogists on TV should be using your web-based technology to deliver the forecast, reinforcing the need in viewers’ minds to use your website the rest of the time. Under this approach, the web is the primary forecast destination, and TV is a complement. If we don’t make this switch soon, we’ll give away our franchise to Weather.com, the portals and national news sites, which already have much better weather technology than most local TV sites. It’s already happening.
