NBC Agrees To Buy The Weather Channel

NEW YORK — NBC Universal and two partners said Sunday they have reached a deal to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications Inc., ending a drawn-out process that had attracted interest from several major media companies.

Financial terms weren't disclosed, but a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity said the purchase price was $3.5 billion in cash. NBC was joined in the deal by the private equity firms The Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital LLC.

In addition to The Weather Channel, which can be seen by 97 percent of U.S. cable subscribers, the deal also includes several related assets such as weather services for newspapers and radio stations and the widely used Web site Weather.com.

NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., became the sole bidder for The Weather Channel last month after Time Warner Inc. dropped out. CBS Corp. and cable industry leader Comcast Corp. had also expressed interest earlier.

NBC already operates a digital weather and news service called NBC Weather Plus that was launched in 2004 and would make a logical fit with The Weather Channel. NBC Weather Plus is owned by NBC and its affiliated TV stations and can be seen on digital cable services and digital subchannels operated by NBC stations.

NBC and Landmark said in a statement that The Weather Channel would be operated as a separate entity out of its base in Atlanta. They said they expected the transaction to close by year-end, pending regulatory approvals.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., GE Commercial Finance, GSO Capital Partners and Sankaty Advisors LLC will provide debt financing for the transaction.

Landmark, a privately held media company based in Norfolk, Va., put The Weather Channel up for sale in January along with its other businesses, which include The Virginian-Pilot and eight other daily newspapers. No announcement has yet been made about the newspaper sales, which are continuing on a separate track.

The Weather Channel was launched in 1982. Its Web site has about 37 million monthly unique visitors, putting it in the top 15 Web sites, according to the company. The Weather Channel has 1,300 employees and estimated annual revenues of $550 million.

Comments

[ChiGuy]

Dear NBC,
Please make the gasbag Al Roker the permanent correspondent at the South Pole.

[applehead]

I WISH FOX WOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE WEATHER CHANNEL. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL TO WATCH BETTY BLONDE AND MARVE MILKTOAST LIE ABOUT THE WEATHER,

SAY IT'S SUNNY WHEN IT'S RAINY,
DOCTOR PHOTOS TO SHOW THE POLAR CAPS ARE HEALING,
COLOR RAINBOWS TO BE ONLY RED WHITE AND BLUE,
BLAME THE LIBERALS FOR TURNING HONEY BEES INTO HOMOSEXUALS
AND ACCUSE CONDORS OF HATING AMERICA.

[haleywins]

Roker on Weather Channel? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Hofstra]

This buying up of outlets by major media conglomerates is terrrible for democracy. There seems to be a game of if outlets are owned where people seek information, this will increase trust and viewership for the news part of what the conglomerate owns. It would also allow a trust even if news was reported poorly(this happens now). The only solutions to this seem to be news that is carefully monitored for fairness and nonbias(a tall order), honorable huge conglomerates, entities as competition, or something done about monopolies.

[MemphisBuffalo]

Oh goodie! More promos for "Biggest Loser" "America Has Talent" and Chris Hanson "To Catch A Thunderstorm"

[Nofoolhere]

There is no good thing that cannot be ruined by a predatory corporation. The only good thing that might happen would be for NBC to change the music behind "Local on the Eights." Since they have been on the air, 99 percent of the sound (I refuse to use the term music) emanating from that portion of their programming, is defined by a frantic, smashing, bashing snare drum, punctuated by a shrieking saxophone that defines what should be a melody line. This is the kind of sound that brain shattered adolescent acid heads suck up to. As one who enjoys "cool jazz," the current sound is worse than the kinds of sound that causes normal people to run screaming from elevators and department stores.

But I hope they don't trash the meteorological staff who are excellent, many whom have been there since its inception. . If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But I would not be surprised by them having their on-the air staff speaking with a Hindu accent by the end of the year.

[cardinal1234]

.......and the media conglomerations continue to march on to the beat of the right-wing neocon drum.

[OhComeOnNow]

Farewell fair and balanced weather.

[jnratliff]

I guess this means that now we won't even be able to get a truthful weather forcast. the right wing bias on the TV is just unbearable. Just filles with suits paid to lie about everything. Some manage to do it with a straight face.
I never new that America had so many people that would be willing to lie for a few bucks.
We have come a long way to let these people take us back to the beginning.
WOW republican liars mixed in with the mixed up so called christian right, It's like the blind leading the stupid.
republican = insanity!

[SEQUOIABISON]

Another good channel will be destroyed by the step child of Jack Welch and his former cronies at GE.

[kittycago]

For starters we have no worries regarding the weather channel avoiding global warming.General Electric the parent company of NBC has announced both solar and desalination of water projects actoss the globe.They also have invested heavily in wind turbines so if anything we will see more friendly green announcements rather than less if we see any at all.The biggest problem I see with NBC/GE owning the Weather Channel is our freinds on the right most visibly spearheaded by FOX and right wing talk radio will be the possible accusations of a left wing spin on the weather conditions.

[SouthpawSass]

Well, if News Corp bought it, all the sunny, pleasant days would be attributed to the Bush Administration and the Republican party in general and all the rainy, snowy days would be attributed to the evil Liberal agenda...

[Rog49Thomas]

And the unspoken motive is perhaps to obtain more interesting shows that can be spun into the main NBC network?

[philtll]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, all the climate change coverage will get spun or removed, and all that. But the truly important thing here is that NBCU already has a weather division now rendered duplicate, and thus Jackie Meretsky's job is theoretically now on the block. You vile, twisted SOBs!

[eugenegerard]

I guess they want to spin the weather.

[Larry of Corrales]

What this means is that we can now expect to see political bias in our weather reports.