Forecasting Revenue from Streaming Weather Content
Every so often, a streaming concept comes along that makes the team here at Help Me Stream Research Foundation sit up and pay attention. A recent request by StreamingMedia.com’s sales and editorial team—to consider crafting a survey that addresses the market opportunity for weather-related streaming “reels” of short-form, on-demand localized weather content—piqued our curiosity enough that we met with the survey’s sponsor, The Weather Company.
While we were a bit skeptical of the potential revenue upsides for streaming providers at the outset, what we learned in the initial call with representatives of The Weather Company solidified our decision to generate a new survey on the topic, and we’re highly encouraging any reader of StreamingMedia.com to consider taking the 2024 Streaming Weather Trends Survey that’s launching today.
Not only will you get a chance to learn more about a potential new revenue stream for your organization (including those that don’t traditionally use advertising to cover operational costs) but you’ll also help shape the conversation around types of weather content you’d most like to see made available.
You’ll notice that this survey launch also differs from prior ones, because we’re naming the sponsor—The Weather Company—as the survey launches, rather than waiting to do so after the survey closes. This decision is due to internal discussions we’ve had, along with the StreamingMedia.com team, about the best way to highlight an innovative approach the company is taking with its initial service called ReelSphere.
ReelSphere uses machine learning/AI to automatically generate short-term weather videos, customizable down to a zip-code level, for playback in connected TV and over-the-top (OTT) platforms. The technology is similar to what you’d see on a local weather forecast, but is geared towards those who might consume more CTV or OTT than traditional local news broadcasts.
Our take is that these videos, which can be varied in length to fit classic online video ad slot lengths, can be used for a variety of business purposes—including, but not limited to, filling unsold ad slots, generating additional revenue through local sponsorship of weather content, etc.—while also allowing non-ad-driven platforms to upsell viewers on seeing weather content from a variety of locations of interest.
As thanks for the time that you spend answering the survey questions—which should take no more than 9 minutes—we’ll provide you with a synopsis of the findings, so that you can better gauge how to fit current and future product offerings into your business model. In addition, if you provide your email address, you’ll be entered into a random drawing to win one of three $100 gift cards.
Finally, since the topic of customized streaming weather content generated both excitement and a number of “what if?” conversations at Help Me Stream, we’d also like to gather extra feedback on this topic via phone or Zoom interviews. Ideally we’d like to interview up to 10 people that work for either a content delivery platform or a content creation company. If you’d be willing to provide more detailed one-on-one feedback, please send an email to tsiglin[at]streamingmedia.com with the subject line “Weather Report feedback” and contact information.