TWC Today Forums
Present - The Weather Channel 2000 => Everything Else TWC => Topic started by: Localonthe8s on September 14, 2014, 07:01:32 PM
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Looks like NBC no longer wants TWC due to falling ratings
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-12/weather-channel-said-to-speak-to-banks-on-options-including-sale.html (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-12/weather-channel-said-to-speak-to-banks-on-options-including-sale.html)
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Looks like NBC no longer wants TWC due to falling ratings
[url]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-12/weather-channel-said-to-speak-to-banks-on-options-including-sale.html[/url] ([url]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-12/weather-channel-said-to-speak-to-banks-on-options-including-sale.html[/url])
Wow! these reality shows and Weathertainment has ruined the viewership as a whole.
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Well this could be interesting. The article says that the TV network could be sold separately from the weather data side of the business. I wonder what this means.
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So, let's see...
NBC ordered The Weather Channel to vastly increase its amount of non-weather programming. Ratings suffer, and now NBC wants out because it failed.
Yep.
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I didn't see anything in that article about poor ratings. :unsure:
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If you think this is NBC making this move, you're looking at the wrong names.
This is what Blackstone and Bain Capital and investment firms do - buy something, cut the costs, then sell it for (hopfully) profit. The three bought TWC for $3.5 billion, they'll at least make their money back.
If anything, I imagine NBC/Comcast would be very interested to keeping their ownership share if the other entities decide to part ways.
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If you think this is NBC making this move, you're looking at the wrong names.
This is what Blackstone and Bain Capital and investment firms do - buy something, cut the costs, then sell it for (hopfully) profit. The three bought TWC for $3.5 billion, they'll at least make their money back.
If anything, I imagine NBC/Comcast would be very interested to keeping their ownership share if the other entities decide to part ways.
You're correct. NBC plays a large role in the operations of TWC but a lot of people forget they aren't the sole owner.
The bigger issue is the decline of the need for The Weather Channel with mobile devices and the internet. Sure there will always be the demand for the network during major weather events but otherwise the outlook isn't too bright. TWC might be worth more now than it will be in the future so the current holders might want to consider a sell.
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Well this could be interesting. The article says that the TV network could be sold separately from the weather data side of the business. I wonder what this means.
Yeah, I don't even understand how this would be practical for the operations of the cable channel. Could this possibly mean that the cable channel would be turned into strictly an entertainment channel while all of the actual meteorological operations only continue on Mobile and Web?
Or if the cable channel does continue to do actual live weather, would they have to reach a contract with the new owner of the meteorological operations to use their data? How bizarre...
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Well this could be interesting. The article says that the TV network could be sold separately from the weather data side of the business. I wonder what this means.
Maybe the weather channel could become a franchise...
When the UK had it's own weather channel (Yep, we did, with British OCM's and forecasts the lot) it was a franchise, the station wasn't produced by NBC or back then TWC itself, but the IPW, the commercial arm of the Met Office.
I need to do more research into the UK version. Apparently it too was meant to have local forecasts. Not quite sure how that would work as it was a satellite service... Plus we only have 3 or 4 cable providers nationally...
Oh well...
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Somehow, I get the feeling that the result can't be good for TWC. Despite the fact that NBC/Comcast/Bain/whoever else have been getting blamed for everything that's wrong with TWC (and I've done some of the blaming myself), it seems like every sale or relaunch brings the channel down to a new low.
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Well this could be interesting. The article says that the TV network could be sold separately from the weather data side of the business. I wonder what this means.
Maybe the weather channel could become a franchise...
When the UK had it's own weather channel (Yep, we did, with British OCM's and forecasts the lot) it was a franchise, the station wasn't produced by NBC or back then TWC itself, but the IPW, the commercial arm of the Met Office.
I need to do more research into the UK version. Apparently it too was meant to have local forecasts. Not quite sure how that would work as it was a satellite service... Plus we only have 3 or 4 cable providers nationally...
Oh well...
That's true
"The Weather Channel" is a brand of "The Weather Company"
so "The Weather Company" could sell "The Weather Channel."
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if The Weather Channel is sold off and spun off of NBCUniversal, then i expect Disney or Time Warner to be in a big bidding war over the future ownership of the network. and i can see Time Warner winning it, putting it in the Turner Broadcasting networks (TBS, TNT, TruTV, HLN and CNN) and then merging it with CNN and re-branding it to CNN Weather.
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FYI, and it's becoming more serious now
http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/19/media/weather-channel-sale-exploration/index.html?sr=fbmoney081915weather750story (http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/19/media/weather-channel-sale-exploration/index.html?sr=fbmoney081915weather750story)
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Imagine a scenario in which the digital platforms sell but the channel gets split off instead... or ceases to exist altogether. (Or transforms into an entirely generic basic cable channel with no weather coverage to speak of.)
Scary to think about, but I don't think it's entirely out of the realm of possibilities.
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I have hopes for this. If NBCU finally stop owning TWC, then most of the problems we had in the past 7 years will end.
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If this means no more longform programming, and more hours of live weather, I'm all for it.
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What I found from the cnn link
The Weather Channel doesn't reach nearly as many viewers on television. While it's available in almost 100 million households in the United States, the channel's ratings are usually low. On Tuesday, for example, a typically quiet day, the channel only rose about the 200,000-viewer mark once.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/19/media/weather-channel-sale-exploration/ (http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/19/media/weather-channel-sale-exploration/)
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well if TWC is for sale here's my top choices to buy it out and my reasons of why.
Time Warner: why would they buy The Weather Channel, simple, to own another major network and merge it with the CNN brand, not to mention to keep the channel still based in Atlanta where both TWC and CNN is based at now.
Disney: why Disney, well, they own co-own ESPN and ABC News, and if possible wouldn't be surprise if The Weather Channel under Disney ownership, plus it will help ABC News wing itself off of it's existing deal with Accuweather to do their weather stories on shows like America This Morning, World News Now, Good Morning America and ABC World News Tonight.
CBS: well, they would love to turn their recent partnership with The Weather Channel into something else, as in own the channel, if CBS got a hand of The Weather Channel, it will team up with networks like CBS Sports Net and CBS Sports for details about the weather and how it may affect the sporting events they cover. and not to mention it would be under a group of CBS owned cable nets like CBS Sports Net, Pop! (co-owned by CBS with Lionsgate) and the Showtime/The Movie Channel/Flix suite of channels.
21st Century Fox: why the heck not, Fox owns Fox News Channel and Fox Business, and Fox News is well beloved by a certain political party and their views. but if Fox got hold of the Weather Channel, it would be more weather with a "Fox attitude" when it comes to the coverage as Fox could re brand the channel to Fox Weather Channel and have some cross promotion with the Fox owned channels and when severe weather hits a region with a Fox O&O, expect local coverage from their Fox sister stations, example: if a tornado outbreak hit Dallas, then they would go to KDFW's Fox 4 coverage of it.
Discovery Networks: this one's a dark horse to me, this companies flagship channel Discovery has aired weather related reality programming before and Discovery has had Jim "gets excited over thundersnow" Cantore host a special with a daredevil doing some stunt. it could be a weird deal, but i Discovery got it, it would just be another channel to air bad reality shows about naked survivalist or rednecks hunting bigfoot in the woods.
Viacom: well, they would want it just cause.
Accuweather: why, simple, this company has been trying to launch a 24/7 weather channel and they have their growing pains and they want to merge TWC and become the biggest authority on weather.
WeatherNation: this upstart had gone through some hard struggles and growning pains since they launch orginally too soon at The Weather Cast on Dish during the 2010 contract fight with TWC, since then, they want to well, grow some more and become the new face of weather coverage. the network alone started up in it's current form in 2011, they added local TV stations as their partners across some cities and be placed on their OTA subchannels and then in 2013, they were added to DirecTV line up and then added earlier this year to Dish's lineup. this one would be a dark horse candidate to buy out TWC as TWC's more established and maybe more pricey then WN.
that's all i can think of that would buy The Weather Channel out from NBC Universal/Comcast and the investors who co-owned the channel with NBCU. again, this is my choices and my options, not actual buyers as Comcast hasn't offically put the channel on the market yet for sale.
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well if TWC is for sale here's my top choices to buy it out and my reasons of why.
Time Warner: why would they buy The Weather Channel, simple, to own another major network and merge it with the CNN brand, not to mention to keep the channel still based in Atlanta where both TWC and CNN is based at now.
Disney: why Disney, well, they own co-own ESPN and ABC News, and if possible wouldn't be surprise if The Weather Channel under Disney ownership, plus it will help ABC News wing itself off of it's existing deal with Accuweather to do their weather stories on shows like America This Morning, World News Now, Good Morning America and ABC World News Tonight.
CBS: well, they would love to turn their recent partnership with The Weather Channel into something else, as in own the channel, if CBS got a hand of The Weather Channel, it will team up with networks like CBS Sports Net and CBS Sports for details about the weather and how it may affect the sporting events they cover. and not to mention it would be under a group of CBS owned cable nets like CBS Sports Net, Pop! (co-owned by CBS with Lionsgate) and the Showtime/The Movie Channel/Flix suite of channels.
21st Century Fox: why the heck not, Fox owns Fox News Channel and Fox Business, and Fox News is well beloved by a certain political party and their views. but if Fox got hold of the Weather Channel, it would be more weather with a "Fox attitude" when it comes to the coverage as Fox could re brand the channel to Fox Weather Channel and have some cross promotion with the Fox owned channels and when severe weather hits a region with a Fox O&O, expect local coverage from their Fox sister stations, example: if a tornado outbreak hit Dallas, then they would go to KDFW's Fox 4 coverage of it.
Discovery Networks: this one's a dark horse to me, this companies flagship channel Discovery has aired weather related reality programming before and Discovery has had Jim "gets excited over thundersnow" Cantore host a special with a daredevil doing some stunt. it could be a weird deal, but i Discovery got it, it would just be another channel to air bad reality shows about naked survivalist or rednecks hunting bigfoot in the woods.
Viacom: well, they would want it just cause.
Accuweather: why, simple, this company has been trying to launch a 24/7 weather channel and they have their growing pains and they want to merge TWC and become the biggest authority on weather.
WeatherNation: this upstart had gone through some hard struggles and growning pains since they launch orginally too soon at The Weather Cast on Dish during the 2010 contract fight with TWC, since then, they want to well, grow some more and become the new face of weather coverage. the network alone started up in it's current form in 2011, they added local TV stations as their partners across some cities and be placed on their OTA subchannels and then in 2013, they were added to DirecTV line up and then added earlier this year to Dish's lineup. this one would be a dark horse candidate to buy out TWC as TWC's more established and maybe more pricey then WN.
that's all i can think of that would buy The Weather Channel out from NBC Universal/Comcast and the investors who co-owned the channel with NBCU. again, this is my choices and my options, not actual buyers as Comcast hasn't offically put the channel on the market yet for sale.
A couple of thoughts... If Time Warner, CBS, 21st Century, etc. were to buy TWC, rebranding it to fit in with CNN, CBS News, Fox News, or whatever would be an awful idea. "The Weather Channel" is a very, very well established brand that is recognized in some form (the network, website, app) by most people. The name is most definitely not the problem. That said, I can't see 21st Century Fox or Disney ever being interested in TWC. Discovery or Viacom would be interesting "outside the box" candidates. Accuweather-TWC would be waaaayyy too huge to be allowed. And what makes you think Weathernation has anywhere close to enough money to buy the behemoth that is TWC?
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It would fit in with Fox News already, in that all the women on air already wear tight dresses, short skirts, and impossible heels.
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i can see accuweather buying TWC in the names of boosting their already well-known brand.
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Personally, I don't see Fox being interested in purchasing The Weather Channel. :no: My best guess would be the two parties' different views on climate change: TWC talks a lot about the subject matter, while the mostly conservative-owned Fox (and of course Fox News) denies the existence of it. It's probably some other reason, but the climate change opinions would be a best guess.
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It looks like we have a buyer....
https://twitter.com/cnbcnow/status/659131485694349313
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It looks like we have a buyer....
https://twitter.com/cnbcnow/status/659131485694349313 (https://twitter.com/cnbcnow/status/659131485694349313)
This article said that IBM would only acquire the website and digital apps, not the TV channel.
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/weather-channels-parent-company-reported-to-sell-digital-assets-to-ibm/275834 (http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/weather-channels-parent-company-reported-to-sell-digital-assets-to-ibm/275834)
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Still doesn't include the channel, only it's digital and data assets.
Trying to find more information on it. Would this include the app and weather.com website? Or just wunderground.com? What would happen to WUTV? How would selling off the data services impact TWC?
I would love to see, if this goes through, the weather channel rebuild on it's own as a powerhouse of weather knowledge by it's meteorologists, centered around them rather than around technology and gimmicks.
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From this article: http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/ibm-weather-company-digital-assets-1201628452/ (http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/ibm-weather-company-digital-assets-1201628452/)
This worries me:
Nonetheless Weather Channel has one of the most widely distributed weather apps, which is the draw for IBM. The Journal also reported that IBM is keenly interested in its weather-forecasting operation. Weather CEO David Kenny is expected to join IBM.
also:
@JohnMoralesNBC6 6m6 minutes ago
IBM's $2B acquisition of TWC's website, app, data, and WSI. Big weather deal.
So that leaves the channel, which won't have a website or app...
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Another source says that the TV network WOULD be included in the sale.
http://recode.net/2015/10/18/the-weather-company-is-in-talks-with-ibm-about-sale-of-digital-assets/ (http://recode.net/2015/10/18/the-weather-company-is-in-talks-with-ibm-about-sale-of-digital-assets/)
I guess all of this will become more clear soon IF this transaction doesn't fall through. Frankly, I'm not sure how the network could exist by itself, without being attached to the website, app, etc.
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Another source says that the TV network WOULD be included in the sale.
[url]http://recode.net/2015/10/18/the-weather-company-is-in-talks-with-ibm-about-sale-of-digital-assets/[/url] ([url]http://recode.net/2015/10/18/the-weather-company-is-in-talks-with-ibm-about-sale-of-digital-assets/[/url])
I guess all of this will become more clear soon IF this transaction doesn't fall through. Frankly, I'm not sure how the network could exist by itself, without being attached to the website, app, etc.
No, it doesn't.
The Weather Company has been mulling a variety of such plans for more than a year, as has been widely reported, talking to a number of different parties about buying either parts or all of its troika of assets.
Those include: The product and technology division, which offers a range of digital weather information via apps and websites and also data sets; the television division, with the flagship cable property, the Weather Channel; and a large meteorological team, providing weather forecasting for a variety of consumer and also business sectors such as aviation.
It says that the weather company has thought of selling all or part of it's assets. It the lists all of their assets. All reports are saying IBM won't buy the network.
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If IBM's buying The Weather Company, do they buy the actual network and partner with a media company where they get minority ownership and they are the ones in charge of the TV side.
if so, i want CBS or Disney to be the media partner/minority owner.
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It is now confirmed that IBM will buy the website and digital apps, not the TV Channel. David Kenny will leave TWC to be with IBM so the TV channel will get a new CEO
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/following-deal-to-sell-weather-co-assets-to-ibm-weather-channel-will-continue/275861 (http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/following-deal-to-sell-weather-co-assets-to-ibm-weather-channel-will-continue/275861)
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It is now confirmed that IBM will buy the website and digital apps, not the TV Channel. David Kenny will leave TWC to be with IBM so the TV channel will get a new CEO
[url]http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/following-deal-to-sell-weather-co-assets-to-ibm-weather-channel-will-continue/275861[/url] ([url]http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/following-deal-to-sell-weather-co-assets-to-ibm-weather-channel-will-continue/275861[/url])
That article makes it sound like Dave Shull is the CEO of the TV network.
Looking back, this really has been a long time coming. The Weather Company entered a partnership with IBM back in March, and Shull joined the company in March to head up a new TV division. The upcoming "refocus" of TWC's programming probably has a lot to do with this too.
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My question is - wasn't digital bringing in a substantial amount of money for The Weather Company? And now with this sale, does that go away? And if that's the case, is the Weather Channel going to use TV dollars to pay for everything?
I imagine a lot of expense is going out with this sale, so what's left on the TV side will be small - and possibily, able to spread the money around further.
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It is now confirmed that IBM will buy the website and digital apps, not the TV Channel. David Kenny will leave TWC to be with IBM so the TV channel will get a new CEO
[url]http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/following-deal-to-sell-weather-co-assets-to-ibm-weather-channel-will-continue/275861[/url] ([url]http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/following-deal-to-sell-weather-co-assets-to-ibm-weather-channel-will-continue/275861[/url])
IBM? Interesting...
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more sale stuff: http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/ibm-puts-the-clouds-in-cloud-computing-acquires-the-weather-company/ (http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/ibm-puts-the-clouds-in-cloud-computing-acquires-the-weather-company/)
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well, now that IBM is buying out everything but the TV channel, here's something interesting about this, i decided to type up the potential new TWC domain names and got some results.
so far i got this:
NBCweather.com (if TWC rebrands to NBC weather if NBCUniversal keeps TWC the channel) : got nothing, CBSweather.com (if CBS buys the TV side out and renames it): it redirects to the CBS corporate site.
theweatherchannel.com and weatherchannel.com (if TWC name is retained in new ownership or NBCUniversal keeps it): redirects to weather.com.
ABCweather.com (in event of Disney buyout and name change): a domain squatter bought this domain and using it to try to harm computers.
FOXweather.com (in event of Fox buyout and name change): went to a site unaffiliated to 21st Century Fox, so it's possible they may redirect to Fox News' website's weather section if Fox does buy it out and renames it.
CNNweather.com (in event of Time Warner/Turner Networks buyout and name change): nothing, no site exist.
so basically, looks like CBS may buy out The Weather Channel TV network and maybe rebrand it to CBS Weather with the fact the CBSweather.com domain redirects to cbscorporation.com
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Considering this:
The Weather Channel is not part of the deal, but will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM under a long-term contract.
I imagine weather.com will still be promoted on the air.
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TWC will likely partner with the new owners of the domain weather.com and simply pay them royalties. At the end of the day, I seriously doubt TWC and weather.com will be severed. Ad revenues from weather.com will go to the new owners.
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Different angle.. http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/weather-channel-ibm-acquisition-reality-tv-1201629228/ (http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/weather-channel-ibm-acquisition-reality-tv-1201629228/)
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Should we expect any changes soon on the network with David Kenny's departure?
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well, now that IBM is buying out everything but the TV channel, here's something interesting about this, i decided to type up the potential new TWC domain names and got some results.
so far i got this:
NBCweather.com (if TWC rebrands to NBC weather if NBCUniversal keeps TWC the channel) : got nothing, CBSweather.com (if CBS buys the TV side out and renames it): it redirects to the CBS corporate site.
theweatherchannel.com and weatherchannel.com (if TWC name is retained in new ownership or NBCUniversal keeps it): redirects to weather.com.
ABCweather.com (in event of Disney buyout and name change): a domain squatter bought this domain and using it to try to harm computers.
FOXweather.com (in event of Fox buyout and name change): went to a site unaffiliated to 21st Century Fox, so it's possible they may redirect to Fox News' website's weather section if Fox does buy it out and renames it.
CNNweather.com (in event of Time Warner/Turner Networks buyout and name change): nothing, no site exist.
so basically, looks like CBS may buy out The Weather Channel TV network and maybe rebrand it to CBS Weather with the fact the CBSweather.com domain redirects to cbscorporation.com
Not sure how you got to that conclusion but alright. Corporations sit on domains all the time. Nothing new.
"The cable channel will continue to be owned by the partnership of NBCUniversal, with a 25% stake, and investment banks Bain Capital and Blackstone, which acquired Weather Co. in 2008 for $3.5 billion."