Jim Cantore: ‘It’s Just Irresponsible For DIRECTV to Drop The Weather Channel’

By Merrill Knox 

the-weather-channel304x200With just hours to go until the deadline for The Weather Channel and DIRECTV to reach a new carriage agreement, Jim Cantore has penned a column arguing that the channel needs to remain on the air “as a trusted resource for those who need our information to stay prepared and ready for what the weather brings.”

We are listening to all your constructive comments and at the end of the day I feel it’s just irresponsible for DIRECTV to drop The Weather Channel and deny their viewers access to critical and potentially life-saving information in times of severe weather. I think it’s a dangerous gamble to put lives at risk for a penny. I think you’ll agree. Nobody can do weather like we do. Nobody.

The deadline for a new carriage agreement is 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. As the last hours tick by, The Weather Channel has been using the hashtag #stormDIRECTV to continue its campaign on social media, as well as encouraging viewers to contact their representatives in Congress to ask them to intervene.

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In the event of a blackout, DIRECTV viewers would not be without a source for weather news: last month, DIRECTV added WeatherNation to its lineup, placing it right next to The Weather Channel on the dial.

“If we are not available to DIRECTV’s 20 million viewers, they will miss the accurate and life-saving information we have been providing for more than 30 years,” The Weather Company CEO David Kenny said in a statement. “We have offered the industry’s best rate for our programming and are committed to reaching an agreement.”

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