The Weather Channel 2014. Aside from location-based weather forecast information, the apps provided radar maps, and tropical and seasonal updates, as well as social media related functions that track weather-related Twitter messages and allow users to send Facebook friends severe weather alerts. The channel also disseminated severe weather information, and photos and videos submitted by meteorologists and viewers, on its Twitter feed (@TWCBreaking, which also served as a hashtag usable for posts). In July 2012, The Weather Company (former owner of The Weather Channel) purchased competing weather website Weather Underground. While The Weather Channel already had success with its own mobile apps, it
The Weather Channel planned to use Weather Underground's large network of digital forecasting and tracking websites to bolster its digital growth. Weather Underground operates separately from The Weather Channel and continues to provide its own forecasts, though its website incorporates some weather news and video content from TWC. The website weather.com and most of The Weather Channel's digital assets were sold to IBM in January 2016. Weather forecast programming made up TWC's entire schedule prior to its incorporation of weather-related original programming – referred in network promotional materials and press releases as "long-form programming" – in 2000 (with few breakaways from its forecast