The Weather Channel will once again be available for DirecTV subscribers after nearly three months. Financial terms weren’t announced, but the two sides reached a deal on Tuesday.
Back in January, the two sides were trying to get a new carriage deal set, but were not able to do so before the Jan. 14 deadline. TWC wasn’t too happy that DirecTV launched its own 24/7 weather network called Weather Nation.
On Tuesday, Deadline reported that the two sides did reach a deal, but it looks like the Weather Channel has had to make the most concessions. Not only did it have to apologize to DirecTV, but it will also be cutting its reality schedule in half during the week. DirecTV subscribers will also have to be given streaming access to TWC programming on mobile devices. Instant local weather will have to be reinstated.
Weather Channel chief David Kinney apologized to “DirecTV and their customers for the disruption of our service and for initiating a public campaign,” in a statement. The network added, “Our viewers deserve better than a public dispute and we pledge to reward their loyalty with exceptional programming and more weather focused news.”
While financial terms were not released, the Wall Street Journal reports that DirectTV had hoped to secure a less-expensive deal with TWC, noting that more people are getting their weather online, not from television. But WSJ’s sources say that DirecTV did accept a slightly higher fee from TWC.
DirecTV has around 20 million subscribers.