FOX has announced a launch date for its FOX Weather streaming service — October 25.
“We have been working towards this moment for the last nine months and are thrilled to debut FOX Weather with our talented and innovative team,” said FOX News Media president Sharri Berg.
The service will use newsgathering units from FOX News across the nation as well as resources and a combined 120 meteorologists from FOX-owned television stations across the country. FOX Weather will offer viewers a complete package of weather products with local, regional, and national products, along with live programming.
FOX Weather is also in the unenviable position of dealing with its sister network, Fox News, constantly contradicting the science-based information it will want to provide in order to provide accurate, credible news.
“How do you address the fact that weather changes are caused to some degree by humans when you have a media property with a history of challenging that fact?” said Brian Wieser, lead analyst at GroupM.
One of FOX’s former employees, now of The Weather Channel, also had comments earlier this year regarding Fox’s stance on climate change.
“I applaud FOX getting into the weather space, but they should certainly leave the lifesaving information to the experts,” said Nora Zimmett, The Weather Channel’s chief content officer, who previously worked at FOX News in the 2000s. She called climate change “a topic that is too important to politicize, and if they do that, they will be doing Americans a disservice.”
The free streaming service will be available at launch through internet-connected TVs via the FOX Now app, the FOX News app, and on Tubi. The Fox Weather app will also be available on iOS and Android mobile device platforms.