Weather forecast calls for 4,800 mobile clips a day

When wireless first came into the picture at The Weather Channel in 1999, it was little more than a couple people working in a corner separated from the rest of the team. A few years later, the network began delivering video clips to mobile devices on a service that lasted only about a year. Then came a deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. to provide weather-related information to the No. 3 carrier’s subscribers.
With each progression came improvements in user experience and overall value, but it wasn’t until 2005 that the network truly embraced wireless offerings, said Louis Gump, vice president of mobile for The Weather Channel Interactive.
“It has been evolving and it will continue to evolve,” he said. “Today we have a pretty significant integration in terms of product and promotion. We’re in the process of discovering how best this works.”
Gump said that all major television networks are dealing with a paradox when it comes to mobile. The question being: How do you simultaneously focus on traditional TV programming and content made specifically for the mobile screen?
Networks like his have much to lose if they produce so much standalone mobile content that it cuts into the value and amount of TV-based content, he said. “The consumer just wants stuff wherever they are,” he continued. Despite all that, The Weather Channel is facing even greater tests.
“The biggest challenge that we face is consumer awareness,” Gump said. “Wireless carriers and media companies are going to be spending more time educating consumers on what they can do on their mobile phone.”
Gump said he’s constantly finding people eavesdropping on his mobile surfing only to be amazed that simple, useful information like weather could be accessed from their mobile phone. Furthermore, many consumers might have tried accessing weather information from their cellphones in the past and came away with a poor experience. Now, improved network speed and applications are constantly improving the customer’s experience, Gump said.
“We produce about 4,800 clips a day just for mobile phones. We actually do entirely different production for mobile. We film multiple times a day for mobile specific and background. We’ll point out things that will be relevant for a mobile user,” he said. “We’ve made a major investment in this area. We have a pretty significant team focused on all of these things.”
The network is now looking toward a systematic wireless integration with that gives viewers a more interactive experience. “I think you’re going to see Web properties, music properties and television studios . more integrated with mobile,” Gump said. “On the promotional side we’ve just started doing some integration with text messaging. We’re actually, a little bit to our surprise, seeing more comments from text messaging than e-mail.”