Dish, Weather Sign Carriage Deal

The Weather Channel, which has endured carriage drops and criticism over the past several months, has eked out a deal with Dish Network that not only includes carriage with the satellite giant’s 14 million pay TV customers, but also includes streaming rights to its Sling TV over the top service.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As part of the deal The Weather Channel interactive app will be available on Dish’s Hopper whole-home DVRs and other select set-top boxes.

“Dish and The Weather Channel have been partners for two decades and we are pleased to continue and expand that relationship to Sling TV,” said Dish senior vice president of programming Warren Schlichting in a statement.

The Weather Channel will launch on Sling TV in July, with pricing and packaging information announced closer to the official launch.

"We are happy to extend our long relationship with Dish, and look forward to continuing to innovate together to provide the best possible service to their subscribers," said Weather Co. chairman and CEO David Kenny in statement.

The Dish deal comes as the Weather Channel has endured carriage fights with Dish rival DirecTV, which dropped the channel for nearly three months last year after a dispute over pricing and content. In March, Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV dropped the channel after signing a deal to carry AccuWeather Network.