Met Office in the News – BBC weather service update

Posted on 6 November, 2017 by Helen Chivers

You may have seen reports in the media that the Met Office has signed a new contract with the BBC to supply their weather services until March 2018. It’s been pleasing to see the public support and response to this, thank you all.

It is important to us as the UKs National Weather Service that the UK public have the weather information they need to make informed decisions every day. This could be through our work with the emergency responders, directly on TV and radio or increasingly on the move on apps and mobile.

No matter who provides weather data to the BBC in the future, Met Office National Severe Weather Warnings will continue to be aired across all BBC channels, ensuring the UK public have access to vital warnings information and advice at times of severe weather.

We are also proud to be partners, recognised as providing great value for money, with ITV, Sky, Channel 5, STV, S4C and BFBS, as well as online news outlets such as the Guardian, Sun, Mirror and Daily Telegraph. We also supply Independent Radio News (IRN) with forecast scripts and warnings, reaching 27 million adult listeners per week (RAJAR, Q1 2017).

Following the awarding of the new weather contract to the Met Office, Michael Jermey, ITV’s Director of News and Current Affairs, said: “We are pleased to be extending our established working relationship with the Met Office, who continue to provide the highest quality and most accurate weather forecasts for our audiences.”

Over the last few years we have continued to demonstrate our world leading credentials in technology and innovation:

    • We have successfully procured and made operational the biggest weather and climate supercomputer in the world, within budget and ahead of schedule
    • Our popular weather app features video forecasts and has had nearly 4 million downloads and has ratings of 4.5* on Apple iOS and 4.3* on Android
    • Our new award winning Alexa Skill sees us enter the virtual assistant world delivering daily regional weather briefings to your home

This continues the proud Met Office history of being at the forefront of delivering weather services to the world — we issued the first newspaper forecast in 1861, the first radio forecast in 1922, and the first TV forecast in 1954. We are now bringing our expert forecasts to new channels, millions more users and younger audiences on Snapchat and Instagram at the tap or swipe of a fingertip, and thanks to ever advancing technology there are sure to be more innovations to come.

This entry was posted in Met Office in the Media, Met Office News and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Met Office in the News – BBC weather service update

  1. xmetman says:
    6 November, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    There is a reasonable chance that if Meteogroup do end up using free American GFS rather than Met Office NWP data, which reading between the lines could end up being the case, the national forecast that Meteogroup issue on the BBC, could be out of line with any National Severe Weather Warning issued by the Met Office.

    • Met Office Press Office says:
      7 November, 2017 at 9:41 am

      Hi Bruce
      You raise a good question. The BBC will continue to show all National Severe Weather Warnings under the terms agreed with the Met Office. This will be backed up with access to our expert meteorologists in our Exeter HQ at times of severe weather. The data used to create these warnings will come directly from the Met Office and the BBC have assured us that they will ensure that any forecasts displayed alongside warnings will be consistent in the Public Interest.
      Helen

Comments are closed.