America’s Emergency Network partners with The Weather Channel to deliver live video updates on weather.com.
The National Hurricane Center, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, as well as eight Florida counties participate.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
America’s Emergency Network (AEN) announced today that its live-video distribution network will be expanded to include the weather.com® site, the number one weather provider online. Pages on weather.com will display live video feeds from emergency operations centers around the State of Florida and two of Florida’s most important government facilities – the National Hurricane Center in Miami and the Florida Division of Emergency Management in Tallahassee. America’s Emergency Network is the only company to connect local, state, and federal-government entities directly to the public through media websites. Now, coupled with the broad reach of weather.com – more than 40 million unique visitors each month – AEN is meeting its goal of bridging the gap between the public and the information it needs.
“We’re thrilled to be working with The Weather Channel and weather.com to distribute the live video feeds carried on the AEN network,” said Bryan Norcross, AEN’s President and CEO. “Adding the prominence and reach of weather.com to AEN’s distribution network means that more people will receive the critical information that our government partners are feeding into America’s Emergency Network.”
Strategically placed in locations around the State of Florida are AEN’s Stream Broadcaster systems, which connect these sites with AEN’s satellite and terrestrial-internet distribution network. Before, during, and after emergencies of any type, sites with the AEN broadcast system are able to get their message out – unedited and directly to the public. Now weather.com joins the list of local television, radio, and newspaper websites across the country that distribute AEN feeds to viewers. The weather.com homepage and news section will provide links to the live-video pages when emergency feeds from AEN are available.
Some of the sites now able to broadcast to weather.com:
• The National Hurricane Center – The most trusted authority on tropical weather events in the United States.
• The Florida Division of Emergency Management – The mouthpiece for emergency operations in the State of Florida, including the Office of the Governor.
• Miami-Dade County, FL – Responsible for the safety of its 2.5 million residents, the largest economy in the Southeast, as well as being the hub for hurricane information, and often a hurricane target.
• Hillsborough County, FL – Located at the center of Florida’s largest media market, and home to the city of Tampa.
• Broward County, FL – With the second largest county population in Florida, Broward County was hit hard by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, the fourth costliest hurricane in U.S. history.
Critical information from the most important agencies in Florida and the United States are now available to the public LIVE on weather.com from America’s Emergency Network.
About America’s Emergency’s Network, Inc.
AEN’s goal is to be sure that every emergency manager, whether from a large county or a small town, has an outlet to reach the public, the media and other government officials. The AEN satellite-based video distribution system is designed to continue to work after a disaster when all power and communications lines are knocked out. For the first time, emergency managers and other public officials have a direct conduit to the public and the media to explain what has happened and how the government is responding. See http://emergency.info for more information.
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About The Weather Channel Companies
The Weather Channel, a 24-hour weather network, is seen in more than 98 million U.S. households. The Weather Channel reaches more than 38 million unique users online per month through weather.com and products including The Weather Channel Desktop, making it the most popular source of online weather, news and information according to Nielsen//Net Ratings. The Weather Channel also operates The Weather Channel HD; Weatherscan, a 24-hour, all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; and is the leading weather information provider for emerging technologies. This includes broadband and interactive television applications and wireless weather products including the most popular content site on the Mobile Web. The Weather Channel Companies are owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press.
AEN Contact:
Janis Farnham, Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Tel: 305-722-4800
janis@aen911.com
Weather Channel Contact:
Melissa Medori,
mmedori@weather.com
