The Weather Channel internationally
The Weather Channel has repeatedly attempted to penetrate the international market over the years. Many of the efforts have proved unsuccessful.
The Weather Channel UK
In October 1996, IWP (the commercial arm of the Met Office) launched The Weather Channel UK. However, problems doomed it from the start, largely logistical. Before the advent of digital satellite television, time-sharing frequencies was the norm. The Weather Channel was broadcast on the Sky satellite service from 6am to 11am (timeshared with The Racing Channel, Galavision, and Sky Movies Gold), which did not allow for the US formula to be reproduced. Some cable regions had it 24 hours a day, however. The localized content did not work with the time restrictions, and as a result, the channel ceased operations in early 1998 due to low viewership. As of 2013, only Sky Movies Select (Sky Movies Gold's present name) remains in the channel slot that was occupied by those three channels during that time.
The Weather Channel Latin America
At the same time, Landmark jumped into the Latin American market with a Spanish-language Weather Channel (known as El Canal del Tiempo). This international version was the only one with a Weather Star unit operating: special versions of the Weather Star XL were distributed to cable operators for use on this channel. Between the channel's debut in late 1996 and December 1997, all three of the channel's original anchors had left. As late as 2001, Weekend Now featured a World Weather Watch using resources from the channel. A Portuguese version for Brazil was launched in 1998. Due to budget cuts, both of those channels were shut down by the network on December 20, 2002 (except The Weather Channel Brazil had been shut down due to its low ratings).
A new international business model
In 2003, TWC went with a new business model for reaching Europe and Latin America, centered on the weather.com Internet property.[1] Several of these pages have been neglected since launch, though the page design was refreshed on weather.com Latin America in 2008.
Pelmorex
The Weather Channel owned a 30% stake in Pelmorex, a Canadian company that owns The Weather Network and MétéoMedia, the Canadian counterparts to TWC. TWC and TWN/MM share forecasting resources. The Pelmorex stake was included in the 2008 sale of TWC and related assets, In 2015, Pelmorex bought out The Weather Channel's stake in the company.[2]
Australia
The concept of TWC was imported to Australia in 1999. The Weather Channel, now known as Sky News Weather Channel, is an unrelated venture that provides weather forecasts in Australia.