The telecommunications and IT services provider Vox has launched a brand-new online weather channel with the former eNCA meteorologist Annette Botha, now bringing viewers the personalised weather forecasts that pay-TV news like eMedia Holdings' eNCA (DStv 403) and eNuus on kykNET (DStv 144) abruptly canned earlier this year for DStv subscribers.
Vox says it has launched its state-of-the-art and technology-driven weather channel, following "research that found that there is a need for more credible, trustworthy and science-backed initiatives to educate and trigger important conversations and behaviour change" around the climate and weather.
"Understanding the weather goes beyond knowing whether to pack an umbrella," says Jacques du Toit, Vox CEO, in a statement.
He says that weather broadcasts on television - even for pay-TV subscribers who are supposed to get more, better and more personalised weather forecasting - have regressed to static representations that add very little value and that leaves South African viewers in a "meteorological drought".
"It is vitally important for people, both young and old, to develop a holistic understanding of broader trends and how our actions are affecting the health of our planet."
"Our research has indicated a pressing need for informative, educational and credible weather analysis, and we believe that by providing this to South Africans we can drive broader understanding and acknowledgement of climate change and how it affects every one of us."
Annette Botha has an honours degree in meteorology and is one of the former TV meteorologists and presenters who were cast aside by eNCA as part of bizarre cost-cutting when it suddenly switched to static weather presentations with dull voice-overs in mid-April this year.
DStv subscribers have been complaining about the quality of kykNET's eNuus supplied by eNCA, with bulletins that are mostly interviews in English taken directly from eNCA just with short Afrikaans intros, a lack of international news and a perceived lack of coverage from all South African provinces, as well as the dumbing down of the end-run weather segments.
"If we can inspire young people to take an active interest in our regional weather and the forces shaping these changes, we would have gone a long way towards arresting the damage we are inflicting on our only planet," says Annette Botha about the new Vox weather channel.
