The Weather Channel is no longer available to 20 million DIRECTV customers after the two parties failed to reach a new carriage agreement by midnight.
In a statement released shortly after the deadline passed, The Weather Company CEO David Kenney called it a “reckless move” and said he is “shocked they have put corporate profits ahead of keeping a trusted channel that subscribers rely on every day.”
DIRECTV fired back with a statement saying their customers want weather coverage “free of reality show clutter.”
“Most consumers don’t want to watch a weather information channel with a forecast of a 40 percent chance of reality TV,” chief content officer Dan York said. “So with that in mind, we are in the process of discussing an agreement to return the network to our line-up at the right value for our customers.”
Last month, DIRECTV added WeatherNation to its lineup in preparation for a potential blackout. In a column published yesterday, Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore responded: “Nobody can do weather like we do. Nobody.”