Everyone may talk about the weather, but Dish Network (NasdaqGS: DISH) is doing something about it. The nation's second biggest satellite TV provider has unceremoniously dumped The Weather Channel and ceremoniously unveiled its own version, Weather Cast.
"Our customers always tell us that the only thing they want in a weather channel is weather reporting. We believe The Weather Cast is the best available weather service in America," said Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming at Dish Network in a news release.
Of course, the change was also influenced by a financial dispute between Dish, which has 14.3 million subs, and The Weather Channel, which wanted to be paid a penny more per subscriber. That would have made The Weather Channel a 12-cents-per-sub burden for Dish. Shull, in an interview, called those costs "significant increases" but insisted that "this is not a product my customers want."
For more:
- see this news release
- and this story
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