• Multichannel News, Monday, April 30, 2007 10:01 AM

The Weather Channel plans to spend about $50 million to develop and roll out an HD version of the network. The effort will include a new studio at its headquarters outfitted with HD cameras and other equipment, as well the conversions of tens of thousands of on-screen graphics.

"We're making major infrastructure investments," says network president Debora Wilson. "We consider this a cost of doing business." The channel hopes to have all programming in HD by the middle of next year, when the standard feed will be a converted version of the HD one. It will break ground on the HD studio May 2, the same day that marks its 25th anniversary and is expected to be done by January.

Weather Channel HD will launch with DirecTV in September 2007, with the satellite operator up-converting the standard-definition feed until the HD studio is done.

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