The Weather Network - History

History

The Weather Network was licensed by the CRTC on December 1, 1987 and began broadcasting on September 1, 1988 as WeatherNow, under the ownership of engineering firm Lavalin Inc. (now known as SNC-Lavalin) and Landmark Communications. The channel gained its present name on May 1, 1989. In the early years, TWN, and its sister station, MeteoMedia, shared a single television signal via analogue transponder on one of the Anik satellites, with computer-generated local forecasts airing on one while the video feed of a live forecaster or TV commercials aired on the other. The two stations began to run separately starting in 1994, while both were still based in Montreal. Local forecasts were generated using the same systems owned by the Weather Channel in the U.S. called WeatherStar. TWN began using its own system called PMX in 1996, which is still in use today. Pelmorex purchased the Weather Network from SNC-Lavalin in 1993, two years after the merger of SNC and Lavalin. The channel launched its web site in 1996.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Weather Network's broadcast was divided into different programming blocks. One of the most notable being "EarthWatch", which originally began as a 5-minute news segment discussing environmental and weather-related issues. The show had expanded as a full evening programming block in the mid-nineties, and the news segment had later spun off as the current Weather News segment. Some other programming blocks included the "Morning Report" and "Sea to Sea"; two morning blocks that focused toward the eastern and western parts of the country respectively, an unnamed afternoon block which would later be known as "Across Canada", and the "Weekend Report"; later known as "This Weekend". These programming blocks were discontinued in 2002, though, "This Weekend" continued to air for some time afterward.

On May 2, 1998, the Weather Network started broadcasting nationally from its new studio in Mississauga, Ontario after relocating from Montreal. This led to the departure of several presenters, notably those who were on air during weekends. Several new presenters arrived at the time, while many of the Montreal presenters initially relocated, most departed TWN over time, many of whom moved back to Montreal. Today, Chris St. Clair, is the only presenter from Montreal remaining.

Late 2001 marked the beginning of a period of gradual, but significant changes with the Weather Networks programming, starting with the launch of a 7-day and short term precipitation forecast during the Local Forecast. In 2002, the Weather Network introduced "Metacast Ultra", a weather presentation system that consisted of weather maps featuring more than 1200 local communities, commuter routes and regional highways, animated weather icons, and higher resolution weather graphics. On March 29, 2004, the Weather Network introduced a new 14-day trend outlook as part of the local cable weather package. It provided a two-week look at how the weather would trend compared to normal temperature values and weather conditions for that time of year. In June 2004, the Weather Network took legal action against Star Choice (Now Shaw Direct) after moving TWN on a new bundle without giving any notice to its subscribers. TWN tried to prevent Star Choice from moving the channel as subscribers would have to pay an additional $7 to watch the channel. In late 2004, TWN made improved local forecast coverage, providing more localized forecasts in up to 1,200 communities across Canada.

The Weather Network relocated its headquarters to Oakville, Ontario in November 2005. The local (Toronto) morning show made its debut at the brand new broadcast facility on November 29, 2005, while the network's national programming started broadcasting from the new facility on Friday, December 2, 2005. The Weather Network has gradually introduced new local weather products including an hourly forecast for the next 12 hours in 2006, long term precipitation forecasts in 2008 and improved satellite and radar maps in 2009.