As Hurricane Helene continues its circuitous path out of the Caribbean and toward the Gulf region of Florida, DIRECTV is working with national weather services and local broadcasters to provide a dedicated Severe Weather Channel and four-channel Severe Weather Mix emergency weather mosaic to keep customers in its expected path and family and friends from other regions apprised of worsening conditions.
Helene is expected to land as a major Category 3 Hurricane late Thursday evening. DIRECTV will add the Severe Weather Channel for all DIRECTV satellite customers [Ch. 361-2] and U-verse homes [Ch. 1227(HD)/227(SD)] and Severe Weather Mix to the same DIRECTV customers across multiple channels, including 361-1 (weather adjacent), 71-1, 200-1, and 307-2 (news mix adjacent) before it does. The Severe Weather Channel and Severe Weather Mix will remain active until emergency weather conditions subside.
The Severe Weather Channel rotates live local news coverage from broadcast stations in the hurricane’s path, and DIRECTV is already collaborating with stations in Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL; Tallahassee, FL- Thomas, GA; Atlanta, GA; and Nashville, TN; to utilize their up-to-the-minute live coverage. DIRECTV will keep adding broadcast stations from other metro regions before Helene’s anticipated arrival in those cities. The four-channel Severe Weather Mix uses the Severe Weather Channel as its anchor and then adds other around-the-clock live coverage from the Weather Channel, AccuWeather, and CNN so anyone living within Helene’s path can view multiple resources immediately and simultaneously as the storm moves from one city to another, potentially placing them in harm’s way.
Major station groups, led by Atlanta-based Cox Media Group, Fox Television Stations, Gray Television, Marquee Broadcasting, Morris Network, Nexstar, Scripps Broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and TEGNA, have already agreed to provide local coverage to this cooperative effort. DIRECTV has launched similar efforts to assist viewers during Hurricane Idalia (2023), Hurricane Ian (2022), Hurricane Ida (2021), Hurricanes Marco and Laura (2020), Hurricane Michael (2018), Hurricane Irma (2017), Superstorm Sandy (2012), and several other national emergency situations.
