Mobile applications will
create numerous opportunities. In March, The Weather Channel will debut a new show focusing on nature called From The Edge with Peter Lik. The company integrated Nielsen's audio code technology to
serve up simultaneous, complementary content to the new show to consumers on tablet devices. It's just the beginning of tying together multiple platforms.
The Weather Channel views
weather similar to the way Google looks at search, Mike Kelly, The Weather Channel CEO, told attendees at OMMA Global in San Francisco Monday. The company claims to employ more meteorologists than any
other private company in the world, and runs on its own algorithmic forecasting method to deliver accurate forecasts. That focus prompted it to focus on location-based services.
In a recent
campaign for Dunkin' Donuts, serving up weather information triggered information on the location of its nearest retail store.
Kelly says The Weather Channel uses the algorithm by dividing the
country up into 1.5-mile squares. It may not have made sense until the smartphone with GPS hit the market. Now as people move through zones, if the weather changes, the consumer will know.
Device manufacturers are building in features to support The Weather Channel's efforts, such as feeds from the national weather service and more than 400 other sources from around the world. Android
devices are also building in barometers -- one of three measurements that can tell people weather conditions around the world.
As more of these phones hit the market, Kelly says he hopes
consumers will allow The Weather Channel to take barometric readings from the phones, so it can make the weather forecast more accurate. "We could turn every consumer with a smartphone into a weather
forecaster or weather observer, potentially," he says.