Met Office Loses BBC Weather Forecasting Contract - BBC News

[6Foot2]

Link 1: Met Office loses BBC weather forecasting contract - BBC News

 

The Met Office has lost its BBC weather forecasting contract, it has confirmed.

 

The UK's weather service has provided the data used for BBC forecasts since the corporation's first radio weather bulletin on 14 November 1922...

 

Link 2: Change.ORG Petition: BBC: Urge the BBC to reconsider its decision not to renew the Met Office contract

 

...The U.K. has a unique and changeable weather system and quite simply being based here in the UK ensures a comprehensive knowledge that will be difficult if not impossible for competitors to emulate, (the contract is expected to be awarded to either a Dutch or New Zealand based company).

 

The loss of this contract places under threat an historic and important part of our national culture, as well as the TV forecasts mentioned The Shipping Forecast which as well as being vital for mariners is also a national treasure and could be directly at threat...

 

Edit: See @Arthur's post.

Edited August 24, 2015 by 6Foot2

[Arthur]

Change.ORG Petition: BBC: Urge the BBC to reconsider its decision not to renew the Met Office contract

The loss of this contract places under threat an historic and important part of our national culture, as well as the TV forecasts mentioned The Shipping Forecast which as well as being vital for mariners is also a national treasure and could be directly at threat.

That's not true. The Shipping Forecast is prepared by the Met Office but supplied to the BBC by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency so isn't affected at all.

 

Shipping Forecast to continue despite Met Office losing BBC contract

Edited August 24, 2015 by Arthur

[sparkeh]

Oddly, even though the presenters are supplied by the Met Office, the BBC have said they won't change. Also they will continue to use the Met Office's severe weather warning system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34031785

[FN-GM]

Oddly, even though the presenters are supplied by the Met Office, the BBC have said they won't change.

 

They will probably be tuped over the BBC. Similar to how school IT people where Tuped over to the managed service companies.

[CAM]

My first port of call tends to be Metcheck anyway.

[davethetekkie]

Well... petition signed; hopefully it'll have some small effect but my confidence in the BBC to act responsibly or with any pride in the 'British' part of its name is pretty much nonexistent.

[hardtailstar]

I rarely use the BBC weather forecasts, I use the Met Office app on my phone.

 

I can see the BBC changing it for a year then going back to the Met Office

[LosOjos]

Well... petition signed; hopefully it'll have some small effect but my confidence in the BBC to act responsibly or with any pride in the 'British' part of its name is pretty much nonexistent.

 

Well when they're facing major cuts to their funding, they have to make savings somewhere.

[davethetekkie]

Major cuts!? They're taking the same amount from me annually as they always have. Multiply that by the number of households who watch (not-necessarily-BBC-produced) live TV as well as all the other premises that are liable for the license? If they need more than that tidy sum to operate then it's time to review some pay packets.

[pete]

I find wunderground.com to be more accurate than the Met Office forecasts.

 

It does help that there's someone down the road with a weather station uploading extremely local forecast data.

[FN-GM]

Major cuts!? They're taking the same amount from me annually as they always have. Multiply that by the number of households who watch (not-necessarily-BBC-produced) live TV as well as all the other premises that are liable for the license? If they need more than that tidy sum to operate then it's time to review some pay packets.

 

As a whole they have lost quite a big chunk annually. The reasons escape my mind though.

[Edu-IT]

As a whole they have lost quite a big chunk annually. The reasons escape my mind though.

People at the top and their pay rises.

[Arthur]

Major cuts!?

As a whole they have lost quite a big chunk annually. The reasons escape my mind though.

Income from the TV licence fee is declining since fewer people are watching live TV.

 

BBC axes 1,000 jobs due to growing popularity of online video streaming

 

The BBC, due to our rapidly swelling love for streaming video and other Internet TV services, will fire 1,000 staff.

 

According to the BBC, income from the TV licence fee for 2016/2017 is now forecast to be £150 million (€210 million) less than in 2011, "because as more people use iPlayer, mobiles and online catch-up, the number of households owning televisions is falling." The BBC doesn't directly mention Netflix, YouTube, and other online video services, but they are certainly part of the equation.

 

The £150 million shortfall will be amortised through "more than 1,000" job cuts (about 5 percent of the BBC's global workforce), plus further reductions in management roles and merging of similar teams across the Digital, Engineering, and Worldwide divisions of the company. Currently there are up to 10 layers of people and management within the BBC, but that will be reduced to a maximum of seven to cut costs.

 

It isn't like the BBC is currently inefficient, either. Today's press release cites a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that found the BBC to be one of the most efficient companies in the public and regulated private sectors: overhead costs were just 7 percent, compared to the public sector average of 11.2 percent.

 

The larger problem, of course, is the ongoing shift in media consumption habits—people are watching less broadcast television, and so they're not buying a TV licence—and that the price of a TV licence has been frozen for the last seven years. The other issue is that the TV licence hasn't been properly modernised to cover digital services: you can use the on-demand BBC iPlayer without a TV licence, for example.

[LosOjos]

Major cuts!? They're taking the same amount from me annually as they always have. Multiply that by the number of households who watch (not-necessarily-BBC-produced) live TV as well as all the other premises that are liable for the license? If they need more than that tidy sum to operate then it's time to review some pay packets.

 

Very few people actually have any idea what the BBC do (and the BBC really should make this clearer IMO). It's not just a case of paying to watch BBC channels (though of course that's a big part of it), they also develop many of the technologies that the entire broadcasting (TV and radio) field relies on, then they share those technologies for free. For instance, they played a major part in developing the On Demand services that all major channels now provide; do you think they'd all be free if the BBC hadn't set the precedent?

 

There are many other technologies that they have developed and are actively developing; I was recently shown a portable broadcasting kit they were working on in Birmingham that would allow any reporter/DJ to set up a radio station with kit you could fit in a decent sized hard case for instance; and this all gets passed out to the industry to help everyone improve their services.

 

If the license fee were scrapped, as is looking like a very real possibility under the current government; you can bet your bottom dollar a lot of currently free services will either become subscription based or have ads every 10 minutes like they do in the USA. OK so for the time being, you can record programs and skip the ads, but I don't think it's a far stretch to say eventually all our TV services will be web based, and then you're stuck watching them; ever tried watching anything on ITV's on demand service?

[6Foot2]

Link: BBC Weather launches new service provided by MeteoGroup

 

MeteoGroup’s service has brought the BBC more forecast data, overhauled the technical architecture behind the online weather services by moving to Cloud technology and improved the way that weather is displayed across all platforms. The improvements to BBC Weather online and via the BBC Weather App include:

 

• New 14-day forecast: The BBC Weather site and apps now have access to more data than ever before which means viewers can be shown up to 14 days of hourly forecast data for UK locations and major international cities.
  
• New forecast features: In addition to new moving graphics, the updated weather service adds new data fields such as ‘chance of rain’ and ‘feels like’ temperature, to provide additional information and help viewers plan their days.
  
• More locations: Thousands of new locations have been added to the database, including many international locations, to make sure viewers can find the weather for where they are and wherever they want to go.
  
• New interactive map: On the website a new weather map for all forecast locations will be visible, helping to show the bigger picture of the weather ahead which will be personalised to the user....

 

[Gibbo]

I quite like the new map. You can see the faint outline of motorways and towns that might not necessary make the map in name.

[6Foot2]

Link: BBC reunites with Met Office for weather forecasts - BBC News

 

Quote

The BBC is to reunite with the Met Office for its weather forecasts and climate updates, eight years after the relationship between the two organisations ended.

 

The new partnership, announced on Wednesday, is aimed at delivering "the most trusted and accurate weather service to everyone in the UK", the corporation said.

 

Since September 2017, data for the BBC's TV, radio and online forecasts has been provided by the Dutch MeteoGroup which was subsequently acquired by the US weather services company DTN.

 

BBC director general Tim Davie said the weather is "the UK's favourite conversation" and "hugely important to all our lives and all our audiences across the world".

 

He added: "The BBC's world-renowned journalism will be working together with the Met Office's weather and climate intelligence to turn science into stories and help everyone in the UK to make informed decisions about the weather."

 

"There has never been more need for trusted and impartial information to help people understand today's weather."

 

No new jobs, or job cuts, have been announced as part of the deal.

 

BBC News understands it is not a commercial relationship involving procurement, but an agreement between the two organisations in the interests of public service...

 

[PotNoodleTech]

Bout time - the spanish were totlaly useless at forecasting Uk weather.

[Dos_Box]

56 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

Bout time - the spanish were totlaly useless at forecasting Uk weather.

Agreed. My main grumbling point with the BBC weather is that the icon for the day gives you the worst possible weather for the day. Even though you may only get half an hour of rain and blazing sunshine for the rest of the day, you'll still be shown the rain icon.