Why doesn't the weather channel local forecast work if you have satellite?

Question

Something I've always wondered, if you have cable and the weather channel then you get to see what the local forecast is for your town, but if you have satellite you instead see just radar images all over the U.S. Why don't you get to see the local forecast if you have satellite?

Answer 1

The Weather Channel employs local forecasts through a technology known as the WeatherSTAR, which is a unit located at your local cable company's headend that downloads local weather data and broadcasts it on top of the feed from The Weather Channel. With cable, your headend is relatively close to where you live, allowing you to receive local weather conditions.

With satellite, however, the entire nation is getting the feed from one central location, making it impossible to provide local information. DirecTV and DISH Network do use the STAR technology to display the bar at the bottom of the screen to display national conditions, but that's the best they can do.

They're currently looking into solutions to perhaps provide regional forecasts instead of only national forecasts to satellite viewers sometime in the future, but there's no official word on when, or if that will happen.

http://support.weather.com/ provides information about the STAR technology, and Wikipedia also provides a more user-friendly description of how the WeatherSTARs work in case you're interested.