Atlanta-based Weather Channel revamped its set and graphics Tuesday and added a new slogan: “It’s Amazing Out There.”
It will also air weather information all the time, even during commercials and long-form programming such as “Hurricane Hunters” and “Highway Thru Hell.”
“Our core product is often the presentation of data,” said Scot Safon, the network’s new chief marketing officer who worked for years at Turner Broadcasting and ran HLN for three years until August. “And it has to be done in a way that gives people the stuff they need to know and a whole bunch of other stuff they didn’t expect 10 years ago such as pollen count. People’s expectations have changed.”
He said the slogan “It’s Amazing Out There” honors how the weather shapes the world “in both wonderful and dramatic ways.”
Safon acknowledged that most people perceive the word “amazing” in a positive way, which might come across odd when the network covers natural disasters such as the recent deadly Philippines typhoon.
“The contention that what is going on out there is amazing is equally applicable to something catastrophic as well as something wonderful,” Safon said. “I think we’ll be careful how we apply [the slogan] to certain things. The fundamental contention is what nature does is amazing.”
The network in recent years has expanded beyond basic weather coverage with more reality programming as more people get weather information from its very popular phone app.
It remains a mid-level player in TV land, ranking 57th last week among basic cable channels with an average of 189,000 viewers, comparable to Oxygen, WE-TV and OWN networks.
