CBS News, Weather Channel Partner On Content, Technology

CBS News and The Weather Channel today unveiled a new content collaboration that will bring enhanced weather and climate reporting to CBS News.

The Weather Channel’s Emmy-winning Immersive Mixed Reality (IMR) technology will provide viewers a “Virtual View” into American communities’ weather conditions. By deploying HDR, 360° cameras, camera tracking and the “Unreal Engine, Zero Density Reality Hub,” the IMR technology allows viewers to visualize future weather forecasts — to see how snow, rain, floods or tornadoes can affect a community before the conditions arrive.

The reports originate from the Weather Channel’s headquarters in Atlanta. The partnership also draws upon live reporting from meteorologists Stephanie Abrams, Jim Cantore and Mike Bettes, as well as the entire Weather Channel meteorological and newsgathering team.

The Weather Channel’s reports will be featured during CBS News’ newscasts, CBS Mornings, CBS Saturday Morning and CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell. The CBS News Streaming Network, the 24/7 digital streaming news service, will also showcase regular reports from the Weather Channel. The CBS News investigative team and the Weather Channel’s meteorological and newsgathering teams will also partner on special investigative climate reports.

Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of the Weather Channel’s parent company, Allen Media Group, said: “This year, the Weather Channel celebrates its 40th anniversary, and there’s never been a more important time to provide viewers cutting-edge visual presentations and compelling storytelling about our weather.

“This new collaboration is designed to offer the CBS News audience the most innovative weather reporting, as well as greater reach for the Weather Channel’s brand. CBS News and the Weather Channel will work closely together to explore and investigate issues related to climate and our environment.”

Neeraj Khemlani, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations, said: “By bringing together CBS News and the Weather Channel’s weather teams and virtual view technology, we will not only be able to forecast the weather but show viewers what it’s really going to look like.

“This is a holistic partnership that brings together the scale of both companies’ reporting teams, technologies and audiences. In addition to the virtual forecasts and live reporting, we will also collaborate on field reporting and pair our investigative teams to expand our environmental investigative efforts. Together we will deliver deeper coverage of one of the most important stories of our time — the impact of the climate on the communities we live in.”