Local Now (stylized as "local now") is an American
over-the-top internet television
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as films and television show, television series, Streaming media, streamed over the Internet. Standing in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by Broadc ...
service owned by The Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of
Allen Media Group
Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved ...
.
A spinoff of
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...
, Local Now primarily provides a cyclic playlist of
weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...
, news, sports,
entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
and lifestyle segments, incorporating localized content through feeds geared to a user-specified area.
Originally developed as a hybrid
TV Everywhere
TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of American subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" ...
service intended for subscribers of
virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPD), after it was acquired by Entertainment Studios in 2018, Local Now converted to a free-to-access model and has since expanded into a hybrid advertiser-supported streaming service, adding
advertising video on demand (AVOD) content through digital linear channels and a selection of VOD programming supplied by Entertainment Studios, and various news providers and independent content distributors.
Local Now's programming is streamed live on the network's website; through
apps for
Amazon Fire TV,
Android,
iOS, and
Roku devices; and linear pay television via
Dish Network (as an
app on internet-connected
Hopper set-top boxes),
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is an American Pay television, subscription Over-the-top media service, over-the-top streaming television service operated by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, which in turn is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., who announced YouTube TV ...
,
FuboTV
FuboTV, Inc., formerly known as the FaceBank Group, and its subsidiary FuboTV Media, Inc., which operates as FuboTV or Fubo, comprise an American over-the-top sports streaming television service that serves customers in Canada, Spain, and the US ...
and
Sling TV
Sling TV is an American streaming television service operated by Sling TV LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dish Network. Unveiled on January 5, 2015, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor aim ...
. The service is operated from The Weather Channel's corporate headquarters in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
by a skeleton crew of three staff members.
History
On September 9, 2015, in published reports regarding The Weather Channel's planned overhaul of its programming schedule that would refocus on forecast-based news shows and weather-related reality/documentary programs as well as pending layoffs of around 50 of TWC's 1,400 employees, sources within
The Weather Company (then the corporate parent of The Weather Channel) revealed that the consortium would launch a localized weather, news and traffic service intended for
over-the-top streaming services offering tiered "
skinny bundles" of cable-originated television channels.
The service, which was named Local Now, would maintain a format similar to that of Weatherscan, a
digital cable and
satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
network featuring localized weather forecasts and traffic reports, which original TWC parent
Landmark Communications
Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC (a spinoff of Landmark Communications, Inc.) is a privately held technology company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia.
History
The ''Norfolk Landmark'' was established in 1873. It had various editors. K. C. Murray ...
launched in 1999. Developed as part of its plan to place emphasis on its internet and mobile properties, The Weather Company intended to distribute Local Now to OTT providers in lieu of or in conjunction with The Weather Channel.
In preparation for the service's launch, The Weather Channel reached agreements with various information service providers to offer content for Local Now to supplement its in-house weather data and video content. Initial partners included the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
, which provides headlines and video for its local and then showbiz news segments;
Sportradar, a sports information agency which provides sports scores and schedules for its local sports segment;
INRIX, which provides real-time incident data sourced from
intelligent transportation systems
An intelligent transportation system (ITS) is an advanced application that aims to provide services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 's ...
; and TrafficLand, a traffic video integration service that provides footage from cameras maintained by
state departments of transportation.
The Weather Channel collaborated with
Arris Global Services to provide technological management services for Local Now, handling design and integration, test validation, deployment, customized HTML software development and managed services. Local Now utilizes integration of the company's transcoders and Anevia's ViaMotion+ packaging software, and was the first service to implement CPE virtualization technology from ActiveVideo (a
cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...
video provider operated as
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
of ARRIS and
Charter Communications).
Local Now launched on January 25, 2016, initially exclusive to subscribers of Sling TV that, at minimum, receive its base "Best of Live TV" tier, with support for
Amazon Fire TV, Android devices (including
Android TV), and
Google Chromecast. The service was designed with younger news consumers in mind, allowing a viewer to get constantly updated local news, weather, sports and traffic information in a condensed format at any time of the day. As noted by Freddy Flaxman,
chief operating officer
A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...
of The Weather Group (which became The Weather Channel's corporate parent after
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
purchased The Weather Company's digital assets in January 2016), this allows Local Now to better compete in a media landscape where consumers are increasingly consuming local news content via the Internet and
smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
apps, instead of waiting to watch long-form newscasts that air between one and five times per day on most major
network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...
s and some
independent stations.
On March 4, 2016, Local Now launched a channel on
Roku, which provides live streams of the service's national and local feeds to OTT subscribers who use Roku's
digital media players.
On May 13, 2016, The Weather Channel announced that it would unveil standalone Local Now
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...
s for Apple and Android devices, which would extend access to the channel to cable and satellite subscribers who receive TWC. The apps, which were made available on the Apple
App Store
An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...
and
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...
on June 8, provide live streams of Local Now's 226 local feeds and The Weather Channel, accessible by entering an
authenticated login from a participating conventional or over-the-top MVPD provider (those who do not subscribe to a participating provider can view the Local Now feeds via a 30-day
free trial, in which users must enter their email address in the login dialog to send a linked message to their account which grants them access).
On December 14, 2016, The Weather Group announced a multi-year distribution agreement with
fuboTV
FuboTV, Inc., formerly known as the FaceBank Group, and its subsidiary FuboTV Media, Inc., which operates as FuboTV or Fubo, comprise an American over-the-top sports streaming television service that serves customers in Canada, Spain, and the US ...
, in which Local Now and The Weather Channel would be included as part of an expanded service set to launch in early 2017, designed to compete with Sling TV and other OTT competitors such as
PlayStation Vue and
DirecTV Now, that would offer 70+ broadcast and cable networks.
On February 28, 2017, as part of
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
's unveiling of
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is an American Pay television, subscription Over-the-top media service, over-the-top streaming television service operated by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, which in turn is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., who announced YouTube TV ...
, the company announced – through a carriage agreement with
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...
– that Local Now and The Weather Channel would be among the channels included as part of the over-the-top MVPD service's initial lineup when it launched in select major U.S. cities that spring. YouTube TV did not include Local Now in its channel offerings at launch, and would not begin carrying the service until December 11, 2018. On March 27, 2017, The Weather Channel signed an agreement with OTT financial news channel
Cheddar to provide daily business news updates for Local Now.
On October 11, 2017, Dish Network began offering Local Now via an application on all generations of its internet-connected Hopper DVR set-top boxes; severe weather notifications provided by Local Now/The Weather Channel were also made available based on the user location. The following month on November 29,
Xumo began offering the service as a premium digital channel through its Channel Plus tier for
LG Electronics
LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG, LG Corporation, the fourth ...
devices on channel IP-126.
On March 22, 2018,
Entertainment Studios (owned by comedian and producer
Byron Allen
Byron Allen (born Byron Allen Folks on April 22, 1961) is an American businessman, film and television producer, and comedian. He is the founder of the American media company Allen Media Group (formerly Entertainment Studios), which has intere ...
) announced its intent to acquire
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...
's television assets from an
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...
/
Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...
partnership. The actual value is undisclosed, but was reported to be around $300 million; the channel's
non-television assets, which were separately sold to IBM two years prior, were not included in the sale.
On May 24, 2018, The Weather Group announced it had reached a content partnership with
Tronc-owned news syndication service
Tribune Content Agency (TCA) to provide supplementary community-focused content for the service's local news segments.
On July 18, The Weather Group announced it had reached a content partnership with
Yelp to provide recommendations, reviews, images, and videos of top local restaurants and bars in each Local Now market for the network's "Tasty Stuff" segment.
Distribution and market coverage
Although a spinoff of The Weather Channel, Local Now is formatted as a general news and weather channel. Because of the distribution structure of over-the-top subscription television, Local Now utilizes a version of TWC's
IntelliStar unit – installed at The Weather Channel's uplink site in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
– that are configured differently from that used by The Weather Channel and Weatherscan, allowing for the recycling of segments featured in one news block seamlessly into another and routine updating of segments to each of the localized feeds. Local Now's automated model – which leverages The Weather Channel's existing infrastructure and technology, and employs only three staff members – allows Local Now to be offered at a fraction of the retransmission rates charged by local broadcast stations. Users of the Local Now website and mobile app, and subscribers of over-the-top MVPD providers carrying the channel, are able to access their local feed based on
ZIP code, by their
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...
via
geolocation
Geopositioning is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object or a person.
Geopositioning yields a set of Geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinates (such as latitude and longitude) in a given map datum ...
, or by manual selection, allowing subscribers to access a feed from another city when they travel outside of their home market.
, Local Now programs 226 individual feeds covering 207 of the 210 U.S.
media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...
s that provide local news, weather and traffic content tailored to those communities (the
St. Joseph, Missouri
St. Joseph is a city in and county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri, Buchanan County, Missouri, United States. A small portion of the city extends north into Andrew County, Missouri, Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the princ ...
,
Presque Isle, Maine and
Zanesville, Ohio
Zanesville is a city in Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located at the confluence of the Licking River (Ohio), Licking and Muskingum River, Muskingum rivers, the city is approximately east of Columbus, Ohio, Columb ...
markets are served by the
Kansas City,
Bangor and
Columbus area feeds by default), with 15 of them operating as subfeeds offering hyperlocal content to individual regions of the
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
,
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
and
Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
markets.
Most markets are served by a single local feed, though Local Now plans to eventually launch additional subfeeds for most markets to "deliver a greater degree of
ggregated content oflocal relevance" than can be incorporated within a local television newscast due to the market's geographical size and time constraints.
Programming and content
Local Now relies on information sourced from The Weather Channel and other content partnerships that the service maintains with the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
,
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
,
Foursquare,
American City Business Journals
American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...
,
Stadium
A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...
,
Cheddar,
Pointslocal, SportRadar, the Internet Video Archive, TrafficLand,
INRIX,
Nextdoor, Fresco,
FlightAware, the
Tribune Content Agency and
Yelp.
In addition to supplying forecast data and other featured content, The Weather Channel also provides simulcasts of its live, wall-to-wall coverage in the event that a severe weather event, winter storm or landfalling tropical system affects the United States (accompanied by a red lower-tenth banner denoting the live TWC simulcast). Unlike TWC, which carries the Local on the 8s segments during storm coverage, Local Now suspends all regularly featured segments – including local forecasts – during the TWC simulcasts, with time allocated to commercial breaks on TWC filled by a slide denoting that the simulcast will return following the break.
The channel originally featured a lower display line (LDL) similar to that seen on TWC at the bottom one-tenth of the screen, to display continuous weather information and inform viewers of current and forthcoming segments in tab form and the current time (the tab highlighting the segment being aired at the time cycled between the segment's title and a countdown clock). The national feed's LDL showed current conditions (denoting the sky condition, and cycling through the temperature, wind data and if applicable,
apparent temperature
Apparent temperature, also known as "feels like", is the temperature equivalent perceived by humans, caused by the combined effects of air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. The measure is most commonly applied to the perceived outd ...
) and daypart forecasts for 20 major U.S. cities, and the current time in all four
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
s in the Contiguous U.S. The localized versions – which were
keyed over the national LDL – cycled through current conditions and forecasts for cities within proximity of the metropolitan area, with the time bar corresponding to the local
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
. As part of a graphical overhaul on February 20, 2017, the LDL was replaced by a progress bar counting down the runtime of the current segment, which had previously appeared atop the LDL; the progress bar was eventually removed on March 1, 2018.
On June 26, 2018, Local Now began employing
Sasha Rionda (a veteran anchor/reporter who previously worked for
E!,
CNN International
Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...
and
CNN en Español, among other news credits) as an on-air anchor to conduct certain national news and entertainment segments and provide occasional field reports. (The addition of Rionda coincided with a refresh of the app that allowed increased content selection functionality, chaptering functions, and advanced notifications and alerts.)
Cycle products
The service maintains a "wheel" schedule that cycles in randomized intervals of, depending on the collective length of the included segments, between 15 and 20 minutes in length. (Originally, these cycles started at approximately the top of each hour, though since June 26, 2018, the segment cycles start immediately upon the user accessing an appropriate local feed.) Some segments – particularly weather and sports segments – featured in the cycle are routinely updated throughout the hour, while others – particularly news and entertainment segments – are updated every three to six hours. Each content cycle includes the following regular segments (listed in order of broadcast):
Slogans
* ''Just the Facts, Please'' (2016–2017)
* ''Places, People, Stuff'' (2017–2018)
* ''Stream On'' / ''Stream Your City'' (advertising; 2018–present)
See also
*
FuboTV
FuboTV, Inc., formerly known as the FaceBank Group, and its subsidiary FuboTV Media, Inc., which operates as FuboTV or Fubo, comprise an American over-the-top sports streaming television service that serves customers in Canada, Spain, and the US ...
*
Haystack News
*
IntelliStar
*
LocalBTV
*
NewsON
*
Sling TV
Sling TV is an American streaming television service operated by Sling TV LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dish Network. Unveiled on January 5, 2015, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor aim ...
*
VUit
*
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...
*
WeatherNation TV
*
WeatherStar
References
External links
*
{{The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel
English-language television stations in the United States
Weather television networks
Television channels and stations established in 2016