The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news and analysis, along with documentaries and entertainment programming related to weather. A sister network, Weatherscan, was a digital cable and satellite service that offered 24-hour automated local forecasts and radar imagery. Weatherscan was officially shut down on December12, 2022. The Weather Channel also produces outsourced weathercasts, notably for CBS News and RFD-TV.
, the Weather Channel is available to approximately 68million pay television households in the United States—down from its 2013 peak of 101million households. Its influence continues to decline with growing access to smartphones and online sources.
In August 2023, it was announced that IBM was selling the Weather Company and its assets to the private equity firm Francisco Partners.
History
The Weather Channel was founded on July 18, 1980, by television meteorologist John Coleman and Frank Batten, then-president of the channel's original owner Landmark Communications. The channel launched at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 2, 1982. Originally, regional and local information was obtained from the National Weather Service for broadcast. Since 2002, all forecasting has been done on-site in Atlanta.NBCUniversal, Bain, and Blackstone ownership
On January 3, 2008, Landmark Communications put the Weather Channel and its assets up for sale. On July 6, 2008, NBC Universal, Bain Capital, and Blackstone Group agreed to jointly purchase the Weather Channel from Landmark, making it the channel's first ownership change in 26 years. The sale was finalized on September 12, 2008.NBC Universal also owned NBC Weather Plus, a rival service which was carried by and featured content from the NBC television network's local network affiliates; that service announced its discontinuation three months later. Over-the-air digital subchannels carrying Weather Plus have since switched to the similarly formatted the Local AccuWeather Channel, kept the Weather Plus engine, or switched affiliations to other networks such as This TV or the Retro Television Network; some have shut down entirely.
From November 2008 to February 2009, the Weather Channel laid off seven long-time on-camera meteorologists: Kristina Abernathy, Eboni Deon, Kristin Dodd, Rich Johnson, Cheryl Lemke, Mark Mancuso and Dave Schwartz. With the exception of Deon, all had been on the air for more than ten years, and three of them had been employed by the network for more than twenty years.
In July 2010, the Weather Channel terminated Bill Keneely, the last of the original on-camera meteorologists who appeared on the network's first broadcasts in 1982. In December of that year, the network also laid off on-camera meteorologist Nicole Mitchell, who later would file a lawsuit against the Weather Channel in 2012, alleging that she had been terminated because the channel's new owners disapproved of the time required by her simultaneous duties as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve as one of the "Hurricane Hunters" team; such reserve duties are protected by U.S. law.
Inevitably, the merger of NBC on-air meteorologists began in May 2009. Former NBC Weather Plus meteorologist Todd Santos joined the Weather Channel on May 2 of that year. Al Roker of NBC's Today began hosting a one-hour morning program called Wake Up With Al, alongside meteorologist Stephanie Abrams later in the summer.
However, for New York City-based forecasting operations, the former NBC Weather Plus forecasting, radar and graphics systems remain in place, with banners changed to fit the Weather Channel's graphics scheme. On September 10, 2009, the Weather Channel co-founder Frank Batten died.
2012 to 2018
In January 2012, David Kenny took over as chief executive officer of the Weather Channel, replacing former AOL executive Mike Kelly, who had been appointed as the company's CEO in the summer of 2009. Although all operations, sales support and marketing and the bulk of employees are located in the headquarters in Atlanta, Kenny declined to move there, and continues to live in Boston as a remote worker.Later in 2012, the Weather Channel's holding company changed its name from the Weather Channel Companies to the Weather Company. The company also purchased competing weather service and website Weather Underground the same year. On March 10, 2015, Verizon FiOS dropped the Weather Channel and WeatherScan for their rival AccuWeather.
On September 9, 2015, the channel announced a phased overhaul of its programming schedule during 2016, in which the channel would gradually shift its focus back towards a forecast-based lineup. The channel cancelled Wake Up with Al, citing high production costs in New York City compared to Atlanta. It announced that AMHQ would be refocused on weather, eliminating lifestyle segments, with Stephanie Abrams becoming host and original host Sam Champion as a contributor for its prime time schedule starting November 2.
The network also announced it would no longer greenlight original long-form programming, and expanded live forecast programming on its schedule throughout 2016 after all remaining long-form programs already in development concluded their runs. In a memo sent out to network staff by Weather Company CEO David Kenny, it explained its refocus on weather-based programs was done so that "our most passionate fans come to us for the weather and the science behind the weather, not our original shows." Around 50 TWC employees–including production, engineering, and financial staff–were laid off, and the television channel's budget was reduced to shift resources to the company's Internet and mobile properties.
The channel's original format was similar to that of a news and information cable network. Since the creation of the series Atmospheres in 2000 and Storm Stories in 2003, the Weather Channel had seen a gradual transition toward a mix of weather forecasting and weather-related entertainment programming that paralleled the launch of sister network Weatherscan, the evolution of the always-on "L" bar/weather ticker, the development of weather.com and popular branded mobile phone applications, and the increased viewing and interest in documentary programs on the topic of weather.
In November 2013, the channel introduced a new initiative of "weather all the time" in response to the criticism. All original programming–which was rebranded under the tagline Natural Drama – now had direct relevance to weather-related subjects, and the network emphasized its promise to interrupt original programming either regionally or nationally during major weather events. In addition, the Weather Channel extended the display of its lower display line to commercial breaks and through entire broadcasts of its original programs.
In August 2015, reports surfaced that the Weather Company's owners were considering a sale of all or part of the venture, having hired Morgan Stanley and PJT Partners to explore their options. On October 28, 2015, it was announced that IBM would acquire most of the Weather Company's assets, including weather.com, Weather Underground, the related mobile applications, and their underlying data platforms, for an undisclosed amount.
IBM planned to leverage its Watson technology as part of the acquisition, foreseeing its use for weather analytics and predictions. The deal, which closed the following January, does not include the Weather Channel itself, which remained owned by the Bain/Blackstone/NBCUniversal consortium, and entered into a long-term licensing agreement with IBM for use of its weather data and "The Weather Channel" name and branding.
Allen Media Group ownership
In August 2016, reports surfaced that Sinclair Broadcast Group had expressed interest in acquiring ownership of the Weather Channel.On March 22, 2018, Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios announced its acquisition of the Weather Channel's television assets from the NBCUniversal/Bain/Blackstone partnership. The actual value is undisclosed, but was reported to be around $300 million. The channel's non-television assets, which were separately sold to IBM two years prior, were not included in the sale.
In the early morning of April 18, 2019, the Weather Channel was temporarily unable to air live programming because of what it called a "malicious software attack" on their network. Previously taped shows were aired while engineers worked with backup equipment, and live programming returned to normal within a few hours. The perpetrators of the malware attack were never identified.
In May 2022, on the Weather Channel's 40th birthday, it launched a new direct-to-consumer subscription-based app.
In August 2023, IBM announced it would be selling its weather unit and the Weather Channel's subsidiaries and apps to the Francisco Partners. As a part of the deal, IBM would retain the company's weather data, which it uses to power artificial intelligence models to sell its enterprise clients for NASA.
In January 2025, Allen Media Group announced plans to have local weather coverage on its sister Allen Media Broadcasting television stations be centralized from TWC and its Atlanta studios, including use of its meteorologists and forecasting technology. AMG argued that this change would "dramatically improve reporting capabilities, especially in high-stakes weather situations" and provide "additional visual storytelling capabilities". The change will result in planned layoffs of meteorologists from stations across 21 media markets, with some being reassigned to work from Atlanta. AMG's announcement faced criticism over how it would impact severe weather coverage, along with the plan to lay off meteorologists with strong connections to their respective communities. WBMA chief meteorologist James Spann stated that he "hate that so many colleagues are involved in this", but admitted that "media consumption is radically different now, and we have to change how our products and services reach you". On January 23, 2025, it was reported that AMG had elected to maintain some of its local meteorologists instead, citing feedback and criticism over the announcement.