Byron Allen purchases Atlanta-based Weather Channel

Byron Allen‘s privately held Entertainment Studios has purchased Atlanta-based Weather Channel.

A once utility-like television standby, the Weather Channel is getting a new owner. 

Media mogul Byron Allen has made a deal through his Entertainment Studios to acquire the television network from its owners, The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast/NBCUniversal. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, though one source estimated the deal to be in the $300 million range. 

The cable network has been owned by two private equity firms – Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group – and media giant NBC/Universal since 2008. It was purchased at the time for an estimated $3.5 billion.

To add a layer of confusion, the owners in 2015 sold off the Weather Channel’s digital assets to IBM for an estimated $2 billion. This means the current purchase doesn’t include weather.com or the Weather Channel app. The cable network now licenses the Weather Channel brand from IBM.

Clearly, for Bain, Blackstone and NBC/Universal, this was not a profitable investment the past decade. Interestingly, NBC/Universal chose not to absorb the Weather Channel into its existing family of networks, which include Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC and Syfy.

The deal does not include digital assets such as the Weather.com site and the Weather Channel app.

 

The Weather Channel, which began airing on linear TV in 1982, offers local and national storm updates along with programming series such as American Super/Natural, morning show AMHQ, Highway Thru Hell, Hurricane 360 and So You Think You'd Survive? In 2017, as hurricanes and fires dominated headlines, ratings for the channel rose 14 percent to an average 248,000 primetime viewers.

The TV network had been owned by Blackstone, Bain and NBCU since 2008, when that group acquired the channel from Landmark Communications for a reported price tag near $3.5 billion. At the time, the channel was one of the most distributed in the U.S. 

Notably, Allen's deal does not include digital assets such as Weather.com, Weather Underground and its Weather Channel app, which were acquired by IBM's The Weather Company division in January 2016. (The Weather Company web offerings draw a sizable audience, with 117,755,000 U.S. unique visitors, according to comScore's February 2018 report.)

"The Weather Channel is one of the most trusted and extremely important cable networks, with information vitally important to the safety and protection of our lives," Allen said Thursday in a statement. "We welcome The Weather Channel, which has been seen in American households for nearly four decades, to our cable television networks division. The acquisition of The Weather Channel is strategic, as we begin our process of investing billions of dollars over the next five years to acquire some of the best media assets around the world."

"We are excited to join Entertainment Studios, and we are especially proud to be part of one of the largest emerging global media companies," said Dave Shull, CEO of The Weather Channel. "Byron Allen's purchase of our innovative and forward-thinking organization will increase the value we bring to our viewers, distributors, and advertisers."

With the addition of the network, Entertainment Studios will own eight linear television channels focused on lifestyle topics, including pets, recipes, and cars. 

Allen has also been active in the film and television acquisition space, snapping up acclaimed movies like Christian Bale's Western Hostiles and Ted Kennedy biopic Chappaquiddick and planning a sequel to the breakout indie shark thriller 47 Meters Down. 

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