As Hurricane Milton nears the Florida Gulf Coast, DIRECTV is again working with national weather services and local broadcasters to provide a dedicated Severe Weather Channel and four-channel Severe Weather Mix emergency weather mosaic before Milton makes landfall on Wednesday to keep customers in its expected path and family and friends from other regions apprised of worsening conditions.
As it currently stands, Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 5 Hurricane with a maximum sustained wind of 175 mph. The second hurricane to strike Florida in less than two weeks is expected to hit the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro region Wednesday evening, with an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds across the west side of the Florida Peninsula as soon as Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Milton should pass west to east from Tampa-St. Petersburg and into the Orlando-Daytona Beach region and then move offshore into the Atlantic Ocean by Thursday morning.
DIRECTV will add its 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) just as it did when Hurricane Helene battered much of the Southeast and caused deadly flooding across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, and parts of Kentucky and Alabama starting Sept. 26. Streaming customers can continue to monitor Hurricane Milton via national weather channels and local stations available on DIRECTV Stream and DIRECTV via the Internet. 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 Florida stations in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fort Myers-Naples, Orlando-Daytona Beach, and Gainesville-Ocala to utilize their up-to-the-minute live coverage. If Milton were to change directions, DIRECTV will add broadcast stations from other metro regions before its anticipated arrival.
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 Milton’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, including Cox Media Group, Fox Television Stations, Gray Media Group, Hearst Television, Montclair Communications, Nexstar Media, and Sinclair Broadcast Group have already agreed to provide local coverage to this cooperative effort. DIRECTV has launched similar efforts to assist viewers during Hurricane Helene (2024), 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.
DIRECTV is pausing any late payment charges and suspending collections until further notice for any customers in Florida potentially impacted by the storm. DIRECTV will also promote emergency resources and disaster relief organizations onscreen and in its programming guide, including:
- Hurricane Milton | Florida Disaster
- Hurricane Milton | FEMA.gov
- Disaster Shelters | Find Shelters | American Red Cross
- Florida School Closures (Dept of Education)
