IBM revolutionises the Weathercast
April 14, 2021
The Weather Company, an IBM Business, is revolutionising the weathercast for TV broadcasters around the world. The Max solution suite allows weather, traffic and news presenters to create and publish content across platforms and also use augmented reality (AR) to immerse their audience on-screen and expand their revenue opportunities.
Weathercasting remains a key differentiator for broadcasters – research shows 85 per cent of viewers choose their local TV news on the basis of the weather segment – and so an accurate, comprehensive, creative and multi-platform solution is critical in staying ahead of the competition.
The Max Reality AR graphics tool puts the broadcaster’s talent into a captivating 3D presentation for high audience impact. And the Max UI is the only one needed, whether creating for TV, web, social media or mobile app output channels. The UI has been recently updated following customer feedback and research in how the tool is used. The objective is speed and efficiency for creating eye-catching graphics whether in studio, at home or in the field.
Their Max Engage with Watson solution is the key to creating and monetising your weather assets on mobile platforms. A broadcaster can automatically curate content, geo-target users and distribute push notifications, alerts and videos tailored to their local market and audience needs. Max Engage is data driven and generates more content for mobile platforms than is humanly possible with the help of augmented intelligence. Regional forecasts can easily be distributed, and these multiply the advertising opportunities you have at any given day and time. Notifications are also key for drawing your audience into your app. “Is rain expected today? Click here to learn more” is an effective way to reach out to users with short pieces of relevant information they will find useful. When the user clicks, they will be taken to your app, where you have control of the experience. “We have seen some huge increases in viewer numbers and that converts into advertising revenue, and return on investment” says The Weather Company, “A large station group in the US grew their annual mobile ad revenue 61 per cent within a year after using Max Engage, going from 179K mobile video views per month to 6 million.”
Learn more about how The Weather Company can maximise your broadcast here.