Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?
IGNORED

Met Office loses BBC contract


Recommended Posts

Posted
  • Location: Warminster, Wiltshire
  • Location: Warminster, Wiltshire

Part of me wonders if the BBC have been trialling a new system in recent months in readiness for losing the Met Office and whether that has contributed to a number of inaccurate forecasts, some at just 12 hours in advance (evening for following morning), both nationally and locally.

 

Not liking the possibility of losing Ian Fergusson from BBC Points West, or for that matter David Braine from Spotlight South West.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

Yeah I'm wondering if it's a cost-cutting measure myself. They have their faults but I think the Met Office are the best for the job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Kilmersdon Radstock Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: None Really but a snow lover deep down
  • Location: Kilmersdon Radstock Somerset
I think the credibility of the Met office by Joe Public has never been very high since the Michael Fish hurricane that wasn't debacle and the loss of the contract by the BBC won't be seen as that significant to many. In fact the public's reputation of them will probably fall further as people will think the end of contract is due to poor forecasting and not money. The problem is the company that supersedes the Met office will have to show greater capabilities and even greater accuracy as Jo Public will soon judge them on merits of forecasting accuracy too.

 

For me personally I'm not that bothered as I use the broadcasts less and less each day relying as many others on the wealth of info available on the web in making my own assumptions and forecasts.. It does seem like the end of a lifetime era though losing the Met from the Beeb.

Edited by Gibby
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury
  • Weather Preferences: Enjoy the weather, you can't take it with you 😎
  • Location: Evesham/ Tewkesbury

Change, nobody seems to like it ,but sometimes it's for the better. After nearly 100 years perhaps the BBC are waking up to the fact that nothing stays the same forever, it's time to move on and now we are into a new century there is a wealth of new inspiring weather companies that provide detailed and accurate weather forecast, such as Netweather.! I think if the BBC were happy with the Met Office there would be no problem. It would not been an easy decision for the Beeb, but as tax payers they want the best value for us. I Certainly welcome the change.......!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

Sad but inevitable I suppose in a way. A headache for those staff involved in the many forecast services provided by UK Met so their union will be busy trying to lessen the fall out for them.I wonder where the raw data will come from, UK Met, GFS or ECMWF. The figures Gibby shows each morning on how accurate (or not) the 500mb northern hemisphere data is shows ECMWF is the leader almost every time scale and on a more or less daily basis.Never mind if you fly anywhere the data the airlines use when flying from the UK is always UK Met output. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

The forecasting for me hasn't been too bad pretty good just the odd cock up which will happen. They are even honest when they mention uncertainty. As it was yesterday not one of the forecasts sources I use got it right. Combining them you'd have got a correct forecast if you chose the right elements. 

They weren't helped by the barbecue summer when the actual summer forecast didn't say that but their head guru decided to be silly and took the slight possibility and made it into the actual forecast. A lesson needed for him in media relations was needed.

In this day and age though the met office are too slow to update and the lack of 24 hr live feeds to data is well behind the times. This won't effect the bbc's decision though as they are chopping the forecast.

I'm worried as too who they are going to use instead though. Hopefully not a certain company who's accuracy is totally questionable but cannot be mentioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Newton Poppleford, Devon, UK
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, Snow, High Winds.
  • Location: Newton Poppleford, Devon, UK

A very big shock but something that I have thought about recently due to poor forecasts and did think something like this might happen. What I don't want to happen is the BBC to find a different provider that has worse quality of forecasting, which as experienced recently forecasting has been poorer than a few years ago on average.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Northwich south cheshire 35m or 114ft above sea le
  • Weather Preferences: snowy winters,warm summers and Storms
  • Location: Northwich south cheshire 35m or 114ft above sea le

So what's going to happen to the presenters then?

I think yourself and Chino should start your own company, you

Would both get my vote anyway.

C.S

Edited by cheshire snow
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

I think yourself and Chino should start your own company, you

Would both get my vote anyway.

C.S

 

I already work for a weather company, but thank you :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Surrey and SW France.
  • Location: Surrey and SW France.

The text of their statement tells me that they have chosen a foreign bidder. Plenty of national weather agencies who will be capable of paying for and accessing data, it is how  well the humans interpret it that that will be key to forecast quality.

 

Decision will be purely on economics and it is fanciful to assume their decision is based on the opinion of the public....the old adage applies, sharpen the pencil for the next tender!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Brighton (currently)
  • Location: Brighton (currently)

According to this, the likes of Alex Deakin and John Hammond are expected to transfer over to the new provider

 

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-08-23/bbc-weather-to-ditch-the-met-office-after-93-years-service

I am glad as they are my favourites!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Shoeburyness, SE Essex
  • Weather Preferences: Cool clear sunny weather all year.
  • Location: Shoeburyness, SE Essex

If they do there will never be a dull moment, because if it isnt going to be much happening in the near future, just think how many plagues storms heatwaves droughts tempests swarms of locusts will be forcasted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

As for the BBC, do Net Weather have a shot?

 

No! Only large companies with a lot of infrastructure (remember it's not just the national forecasts on TV, its local tv, radio, the news channel, BBC worldwide etc etc) would have been invited to tender. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

From what I'm hearing, MeteoGroup are the most likely to get it.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy and thundery.
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level

I find it quite hard that they [the BBC] are doing this for 'our best interests' or to ' give us value'. For example we[hubs and me] like watching motor sports, but now they only broadcast live a handful of races, but other things such as the tennis wasn't touched. I smell another 'cost cutting' exercise,  as I'm sure I have read that the TV licence is changing or even going.

The thing is, as has been said here many many times, we may have the tech to see WHAT the weather could bring us, it doesn't mean 100% of the time the forecasts will be right, and saying MET0 forecasts are to think of a word, 'awful' is one thing, but the public at least have a trust in what they say. There is no guarantee that a new provider will be better, as they say,' pay peanuts get monkeys.'

All i'm saying is that who ever runs the BBC must only like school/hospital drama's, depressing soaps, antiques,  and wimbledon.

They haven't got a clue on what the public want just what their pockets look like.

Edited by Dami
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: NW LONDON
  • Weather Preferences: Sun, sleet, Snow
  • Location: NW LONDON

They can always use exactaweather :oops: James Madden has a sale on at the moment for a lifetime subscription, plus a free gift if you join soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall
  • Weather Preferences: Winter - Heavy Snow Summer - Hot with Night time Thunderstorms
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall

This is a genuine surprise to me, as I just don't know who can replace them. Despite working for a private forecasting company, I could never see anyone but the Met Office providing the forecasts. Will be interesting to see where they turn to next.

Wasn't there a New Zealand company touted in the past that could provide the data or am I completely wrong with this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

Wasn't there a New Zealand company touted in the past that could provide the data or am I completely wrong with this?

 

MetraWeather, yes. They are reportedly in the running too. They are already the national forecast provider for NZ.

 

And if the BBC wanted to save money on weather forecasts, they could always stop sending presenters hundreds of miles to be "on site". Just keep them in the studio!

Edited by Nick L
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.

They can always use exactaweather :oops: James Madden has a sale on at the moment for a lifetime subscription, plus a free gift if you join soon.

 

Im going to keep my mouth firmly 'zipped' on this one.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy and thundery.
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level

MetraWeather, yes. They are reportedly in the running too. They are already the national forecast provider for NZ.

 

And if the BBC wanted to save money on weather forecasts, they could always stop sending presenters hundreds of miles to be "on site". Just keep them in the studio!

Quite agree, they waste money like there's no tomorrow. I look at programs like 'bargain hunt' and think i gave them that money to waste on tat. Not a big fan of that program, winds me up.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Ampney Crucis, Nr. Cirencester
  • Location: Ampney Crucis, Nr. Cirencester

Does this mean no more Miss Kirkwood? Mornings will never be the same again! :-(

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore

I would imagine that the imcoming company would seek to keep a lot of the forecasters on (should they want to switch), because it's a lot better/simpler to do that than to train a whole load of new ones and not have the popular and familiar faces still on the tv. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

Quite agree, they waste money like there's no tomorrow. I look at programs like 'bargain hunt' and think i gave them that money to waste on tat. Not a big fan of that program, winds me up.

 

I'm sorry but this post really made me laugh :D I don't think I've ever seen such a strong opinion on a seemingly harmless show :p

Edited by Nick L
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...