The Weather Channel this month has begun construction of a new production facility as part of the cable outlet's transition to HD. Currently the only weather reports seen in HD on a regular basis are usually within local newscasts of broadcasters who have already transitioned their local content to HD. Thus far, fewer than 50 local stations have made that leap.
Weather Channel Companies President Debora Wilson said apart from what it took to launch the original network in the first place, "This is probably the single biggest undertaking that we've ever had," according to the Atlanta Business Journal.
The Weather Channel is owned by Landmark Communications of Norfolk, Va.
A competing all-weather, all-the-time service, AccuWeather, which primarily caters to local stations that produce their own weathercasts, is prepping for its own introduction of HD-enhanced hardware/software for local markets, to ramp up next fall. Its HD offerings, which include a lot of emersion graphics, were previewed last month at NAB2007 (HD Notebook, April 25, 2007).
