The Internet was once thought to be a threat to local television. But with the concept of a “personal forecast,” there is a new way for meteorologists to directly reach their viewers with personalized, location-specific weather information any time of day.

For decades, local television news has been the dominant source of weather information. Stations spend countless hours and dollars trying to build trust in their weather brand and loyalty to their on-air talent. It only makes sense to extend that trust and loyalty to the web. Personal MicroCast™ is revolutionizing the way that people are viewing weather by providing a way for meteorologists to have direct one-on-one contact with their viewers.

Over two years ago MyWeather L.L.C. introduced the world to a unique concept of personal forecasting—a concept that combines the personal nature of web interaction with the trust and loyalty inherent in local television news. Since then, more than one out of every four households in the United States has access to Personal MicroCast.

MyWeather helps stations offer highly localized weather information including daily emails from the station’s weather team, personalized neighborhood-level forecasts on the station’s website, customizable severe weather alerts, and a desktop icon with the current temperature displayed. Enhanced content includes amazing new breakthroughs such animated forecast imagery, and online personal storm tracking which can alert viewers, not when their county, but their actual location is threatened by a storm.

Personal MicroCast™ is a patented technology that starts with the industry-leading MicroCast™ model. It is then combined with each subscriber’s personal profile to generate a unique forecast for their desired location. Finally, it allows the station’s weather team to make changes to forecast before publishing the information to the web.

This presentation will provide an overview of Personal MicroCast™, its patented technology, and how it can be used to increase viewership and station loyalty.