Fox Weather

The Fox Corp. climate-news service, which got its start as a streaming app when it launched in October of last year, is not so quietly winding its way into as many platforms as it can. On Thursday, Fox Corp. and smart-TV manufacturer Vizio unveiled an expanded distribution agreement that puts Fox Weather on Vizio WatchFree+ alongside existing Fox ad-supported channels. Since its debut the app has been downloaded more than two million times.

Fox Weather celebrates its first anniversary this week, and TVNewsCheck’s Michael Depp talks with meteorologist Amy Freeze about a year that saw $15 billion in storm damage across the U.S., lessons she and her colleagues have learned in covering major weather events and how climate has become an important part of the reporting narrative. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Of the four television products that comprise Fox News Media — which includes the Fox Business Network, the Fox News Channel and the streaming service Fox Nation — Fox Weather is the only service that offers free access to every element of its product (viewers don’t have to pay to stream the Fox Weather channel, and its website and smartphone apps are free to download and use).

Sharri Berg, president of Fox Weather, COO of news and operations for Fox Television Stations and one of this year’s TVNewsCheck Women in Technology Leadership Award winners, has been piecing together emerging technology and talented personnel throughout her 34 years at the company. Along the way, she’s built her own reputation as an irrepressible innovator, a generous mentor and a prescient trendspotter in TV technology. Above: Sharri Berg at 2 minutes and 3 seconds before the launch of Fox Weather on Oct. 25, 2021.

Fox Weather has unveiled a series of weather trucks dubbed the “Fox Weather Beasts,” with four planned for deployment. Built on Ford F-250 chassis and designed for all weather conditions, the trucks include a 385 hp V8 engine, a two-inch body lift and rides on an upgraded suspension with 35-inch all-terrain tires.

The veteran meteorologist comes to the nascent streaming weather service from WPLG Miami.

Fox Weather will be available to viewers on Fox Television Stations’ subchannels in 17 markets and select simulcast hours on Fox-owned duopoly stations across the country. It will also be available on YouTube TV, Amazon News, The Roku Channel, fuboTV and Xumo.

The streaming weather service adds YouTube TV, Amazon News, The Roku Channel, fuboTV and Xumo as distribution partners. The service will simulcast select hours on Fox Television Station duopolies and full time on diginets across the country.

The new streaming service was created to save lives, said Sharri Berg, president of Fox Weather. And during the recent storms in Kentucky, “it was all hands on deck. We went commercial-free for four hours. We covered every single alert and warning and demonstrated it and gave context” while also reporting on the devastating aftermath. Above (l-r): TVNewsCheck’s Michael Depp and Fox Weather’s Sharri Berg, Amy Freeze and Craig Herrera (photo by Jack Pagano).

Sharri Berg, president of the newly launched Fox Weather streaming channel, will keynote TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum in a wide-ranging look at its operations and the rapidly evolving TV weather landscape. Fox Weather meteorologists Amy Freeze and Craig Herrera will join the discussion on Dec. 14, presented in-person at the New York Hilton and virtually. Register here.

The Fox Weather app was the top free app downloaded in the week it launched, ahead of brand giants like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. How’d they do it? A combination of old-school advertising and brand loyalty.

Fox Weather launched Monday after months of headline-making hires. Meteorologist Britta Merwin spoke ahead of the streaming platform’s premiere and said “of course” the outlet will be covering climate change, in contrast to the speculative jokes people first made when it was announced that Fox News Media was launching a weather service as its eighth platform.

Fox Weather, built with help from Fox News and Fox’s local TV stations, launches at a stormy moment in the field of weather media, and the company’s entry into the space isn’t to be taken lightly. Fox has over the course of the last few decades made a business of building operations in markets previously believed to be overserved.

The new AVOD streaming platform will offer users a suite of weather products featuring local, regional and national reporting, in addition to live programming. It also has just signed WABC New York Meteorologist Amy Freeze as an anchor.

Fox Corp. is hoping to replicate its success in the fields of general entertainment, news and sports with the launch of a new, ad-supported streaming service dedicated to weather coverage. Next month, the company’s Fox News Media division will formally debut Fox Weather, a free streaming weather network complemented by a robust website and mobile apps that the company says will offer its audience unparalleled coverage of weather-related events. The service is the latest ambitious push into the direct-to-consumer streaming space for Fox.

As viewers tune out cable news, Rupert Murdoch is preparing the debut of Fox Weather, a potentially powerful new player in a sphere long dominated by the Weather Channel.