For Sale: TWC

[Mike Peregrine]

Landmark Communications is announcing plans to sell (http://www.wsbtv.com/entertainment/14967914/detail.html) TWC along with its newspapers, etc. Asking price is $5bn. Maybe we could all pool together, buy it and make into a network that actually shows the weather again. Lately I've been watching the NBC local weather channel on cable a lot.

[Benjamin Smith]

I can throw in $10 to the cause initially.

[afischer]

I'll put in $10 if they bring Rick and Marny back.

And another $10 if they kick Cheryl Lemke off permanently.

[Kevin Crawmer]

I'll give $20 if they KEEP Stephanie Abrams, Heather Tesch, Hillary Andrews, and Jennifer Carfagno! :)

[Scott Taylor]

Heck, I'll throw in 20! But only if we go back to the format used in the 80s... where the weather really was covered, and without the on-screen personalities getting cut-off at the end of every segment with the next #*&$ commercial.

Otherwise, just let it die in peace.... RIP TWC. :cool:

Scott

[Kevin Crawmer]

While we are dreaming, can we replace gardening tips for educational segments pertinent to the season?

[richhorodner]

I'll give $20 if they KEEP Stephanie Abrams, Heather Tesch, Hillary Andrews, and Jennifer Carfagno! :)

When I worked at TWC in its early days, they had a call-in line for recorded messages and questions from viewers; which I often was assigned to preview each morning.

Then, someone (or several someones) began to call repeatedly during the night, mumbled stuff about certain body parts of the female weathercasters, what he could do with them, and then heavy breathing for about 2 minutes.
The call-in line was then discontinued.

Was that you callling?
--------------------------------------

As an added note: the original investment to start the Weather Channel was about $25 million dollars in 1981.

[Shane Adams]

This is excellent news. Either someone buys it and changes the name of the channel to reflect gardening & life on the east coast (so we're no longer mislead that it covers actual weather), makes it about weather again, or it dies altogether.

Now all we need is the same thing to happen to Money Television, aka "MTV".

[Kevin Crawmer]

LOL, NO! That is sick and wrong. I can enjoy a little eye candy presenting me with the weather though.

On a serious note, I do miss the old days. I also miss the days growing up in SW MO and turning the antennae on the house to the SW and catching all of Tulsa's severe weather coverage. Oh the good ole days in tornado alley.

[Mike Peregrine]

I really think the local weather channels have this figured out at this point. A channel for each city that has nothing but it's weather, 24/7. I know I can turn there anytime I want, see radar/satellite, a forecast map and hear an actual forecaster making an actual forecast.

[Terry Tyler]

Asking price is $5bn. Maybe we could all pool together, buy it and make into a network that actually shows the weather again.

i got $5 on it, mike...

[Bill Hark]

Now all we need is the same thing to happen to Money Television, aka "MTV".

I have a vague memory of MTV from over 20 years ago. Wasn't it something cool back then.

Except for Storm Stories, I'd can all those extra shows especially the extreme sports and gardening junk. I wish TWC will get back to the weather, real severe weather updates (and use more stringer footage and less crap from local stations).

Since it is so bad at present, a change of owners can only make it better.

Bill Hark

[James Siler]

i got $5 on it, mike...
Grab your bowl lets get keyed.... oh wait sorry. Thought we were singing that! I have personally come to hate TWC and it's website. And the bad thing is for the longest my office would determine it's actions during severe weather based of that website and it's OMG delay on radar. I kept complaining about it so now they at least use KFOR or KOCO for more local weather. I'll give $50 for TWC to help out though!

[Brian Stertz]

I really do not pay too much attention at media...and as a former TWC addict...it was not hard to get off the stuff. They've had some tremendously talented people on there through the years and many have been let go for some real dog-faced and weak weather "talent". This turned me off as did their shift to a wussified brand of gardening and feel good/global warming crap. TWC had their chance to keep me a loyal viewer and that did not happen. Now if it's 2-3 times a month thats a miracle.
Horrible weather coverage and they have shot blanks for Hurricanes the last 2 years...and sure that smarted.

[Mike Peregrine]

lol - well I'm tabulating and looks like we have $115 contributing toward the cause at this point. We're almost there, folks ... we only need $4,999,999,885. I'm not sure, but I think we might need to investigate our financing options.

What happened with TWC is simple ... they divide the country into markets with highest viewer ratios. So the eastern seaboard, Chicago and Florida all get top billing. TWC knows that even if the weather is totally uninteresting in Boston, it is going to get a ton more viewers there than in L.A., where the masses of people couldn't care less about another day of sunshine. So even if there are prime weather stories in other places in the country, Boston, Miami and Atlanta will still win out every time. Kansas City is number 30 in TWC's nationwide market, even though we get some of the most interesting, extreme and varied weather on the entire planet, so you're just not going to see us a whole heck of a lot anymore.

IF TWC could come up with a way to keep each pocket of viewers happy nationwide while still providing some interesting weather content, it would have something good. I think it is seriously in trouble, however, due to the rise in alternate methods of obtaining genuine, helpful weather information. Even online, my current preference is to check the local NWS site.

[Susan Strom]

I look at it particularly when traveling. Airport news is useful. I also like to see local forecasts. It used to be that they were too Atlanta-centric, but they seem to be spreading coverage nationwide a bit more now. Still there is a lot of focus on the Southeast (usually while someone stands in front of the Southwest...even though Phx is the 5th largest city in the country, and is very interesting weather wise during monsoon). My favorite feature programs are Epic Conditions and Weather Ventures, and fall foliage reports. My least favorites are allergy & gardening news, and Forecast Earth. It would be cool to cover a bit more space weather as well, offering aurora, eclipse, and meteor shower forecasts as well, and to show the lunar phases on the local forecasts more often, with sunrise and sunset times. Interestingly, they don't go into lightning trackers too much either, even though lightning trackers are shown all over my local news.

[Terry Tyler]

personally, i would think that TWC would be worth more then only $5bn...

all that advertising, and whatnot...im sure they make more then that in 1 year, but i really dont know for sure...

[Nick Hartley]

A gut feeling and a little birdie tells me the Discovery Channel Group will buy it. With them selling the travel channel a while back. it'd be a good investment for them.

[JIM SELLARS]

I wonder if John Coleman would buy it back?....Or does he just laugh like every one else?....It kills me to have a moderate coverage severe event in progress, turn to the Weather Channel and see a special about skydiving or Dog training....I can see the ads now...."THE WEATHER CHANNEL IS NOW 24 HOUR HEIDI CULLEN ENVIRONMENTAL SHOWCASE STARRING JIM CANTORE"....R.I.P. TWC you've been dead a long time...

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

National Geographic should buy it...

[Jason Foster]

Ever since Frank Batten left a few years ago (Frank was one of the original creators) the channel hasn't been the same.

TWC is unique amoung the cable networks because it is a private company, not publically traded. There are (were) free to make executive decisions without the approval of shareholders. Frank Batten's book on TWC is a great read, and really puts light into how Landmark communications and TWC put together a long shot, and had a great success with the idea.

As far as the cost, it basically comes down to the advertising. How much revenue do the produce with their advertising dollars.

I suspect Turner Broadcasting network might snatch them being that Wonya Lucas, General Managaer & Executive Vice Preside, has a relationship with them already (via family). One thing I'm pretty sure, they'll end up being part of a publically traded company, and most of us won't be happy with the end result.

Jason Foster, N3PRZ
www.weatherwarrior.net

[Eric Treece]

Heck, I will throw in $100 if we can postpone the Tropical Update until something ACTUALLY happens to justify it.

[Mark Blue]

I'll give $20 if they KEEP Stephanie Abrams, Heather Tesch, Hillary Andrews, and Jennifer Carfagno! :)

You might want to check your spelling of Heather's last name. I thought it was Tush.:D

[Dave Gallaher]

National Geographic should buy it...

No, Tarmo, please no! No more Rupert Murdoch media, please!

Well, Rupert just owns the National Geographic channel. Maybe Reverend Sun Myung Moon could buy it to go along with UPI and the Washington Times. Wow--spun weather.

I vote for donating it to Mike Gibson.

[Mike Johnston]

personally, i would think that TWC would be worth more then only $5bn...

all that advertising, and whatnot...im sure they make more then that in 1 year, but i really dont know for sure...

No, CNBC did a breakdown of their numbers and their annual revenues are only around $800 million - from three segments, TV advertising, web site and business-to-business forecasting services, in that order.

The $5 billion price tag is a very premium price - over 5x gross. The reason is that properties like this just don't come up for sale very often; kind of like the Wall Street Journal. Whoever buys it (Newscorp, General Electric (NBC) and Time-Warner were mentioned as leading candidates) will be paying up big time for an opportunity to "leverage" its resources.

With this price tag, don't expect a return to a basic weather emphasis anytime soon. On the contrary, the product will be integrated even further into tangenital content in order to continue to expand its targeted advertising strategy.

[Dan Robinson]

Guys, TWC wouldn't be successful if they were what we wanted them to be. Had they not stopped programming for the weather-saavy they would have gone bankrupt years ago. As much as we'd like them to 'return to their roots', they are in business to make money, not cater to an enthusiast minority. They do what they do now because it works. Why would they choose to lose money and viewership by changing it?

This goes back to what we've been taking about in the Discovery/WE/CourtTV threads. People just don't care about storm chasing or weather like we do, and that is why TWC is they way they are. Weather is big business because people want to know what to wear to work or if they can have their barbecue on Saturday. No one but us cares about the hows or whys.

Case in point - how many chase DVDs did you sell last year? Doing what you love doesn't always pay your mortgage.

[Shane Adams]

Guys, TWC wouldn't be successful if they were what we wanted them to be. Had they not stopped programming for the weather-saavy they would have gone bankrupt years ago. As much as we'd like them to 'return to their roots', they are in business to make money, not cater to an enthusiast minority. They do what they do now because it works. Why would they choose to lose money and viewership by changing it?

This goes back to what we've been taking about in the Discovery/WE/CourtTV threads. People just don't care about storm chasing or weather like we do, and that is why TWC is they way they are. Weather is big business because people want to know what to wear to work or if they can have their barbecue on Saturday. No one but us cares about the hows or whys.

Case in point - how many chase DVDs did you sell last year? Doing what you love doesn't always pay your mortgage.

That's fine, but don't call it the "weather" channel. That's false advertising. I could care less what they show, P Allen Smith can grow tulips out his #$% for all I care, but don't mislead people who are looking for weather information that is actually helpful

I get really tired of seeing "they're a business and they're trying to make money"...that statement is always used whenever something is worthless as advertised (another example: MTV). Make your money, choke on it for all I care. But don't mislead people, just say what you are. Call it "Soccer Moms and East Coast Interests" or something. Or maybe "If you're in rural Nebraska under a tornado warning but it's sprinkling in Atlanta you're screwed". That one is pretty accurate.

[Dave Gallaher]

Call it "Soccer Moms and East Coast Interests" or something. Or maybe "If you're in rural Nebraska under a tornado warning but it's sprinkling in Atlanta you're screwed". That one is pretty accurate.

The EnViro Channel...

[Stephen Levine]

Actually I think that it works the opposite way as previously posted. If the Weather Channel were to handle weather in the way that sports channels handles sports and news channels handle news, it's viewership might multiply many fold.
This means flying people out every day to the scene of anticipated intense weather and having constant live reports like they sometimes do now for snow situations.
A few years ago, they sent their own storm chasers out to the Plains and gave reports then. That is what needs to expand, not get cut off like it did.
This means having reporters available to fly to SLT RSK areas and give reports. Also on-site interesting reports like the first droughtbreaking rains (live reports) in the SE, etc.
Make it visual, experiential, and science based. Pan on the sky, show the radar, describe what's happening. How does it look, smell, feel?
One of my favorite scenes was when Jim Cantore was sent to do live coverage of an E. Mass snowstorm and a huge flash of lightning interrupted his broadcast.
Headlines like "Big Storms Expected in MO Today, Reporters Enroute" would get interest.
The increasing airplay of TV storm chaser stories is a clue that there actually is interest in this area.
In fact, with my substitute teaching job, when I tell kids that I am a professional storm chaser, there is usually alot of interest and questions, plus a frequent "Can I come along?"
Make weather interesting and exciting as sports is, and the viewership will come along.
The other issue with the Weather Channel is that they diss practically any weather that most of us like. Any Rain is "bad news", "messy", etc. and until the SE baked in the recent drought, sunshine was always "good news".
Their awful commentaries on exquisite weather turned me off a long time ago.

[Dan Robinson]

Look at all the fishing, hunting and golfing TV channels, magazines, stores and niche businesses. That's because there are enough people into those things to support it. Compare that to storm chasing. We can't even support our own print magazine that had been around since the 70's. Very few of us have made a profit from even the best of chase DVDs.

People do have a fleeting interest in chasing and weather, but it is always a passing thing. There is a difference between people thinking it's cool that you're a storm chaser when they first meet you, and that translating into a loyal fan base that will actually keep being interested in what you do, buy your DVDs, visit your web site, etc.

I've been pretty hardcore in chasing and weather for the past decade, putting a lot of effort and heart in to it. But the interest just isn't there from anyone really but the people who are on this message board. My web site and blog stats don't reflect a growing interest in weather from anyone but those inside our small circles. It's enough that I even ask myself if it's even worth continuing to maintain a site anymore.

TWC, or any new channel doing things the way we want, is nothing more than a pipe dream. It would be great, but it would be doomed to fail from the start. The business aspect just will not work with a loyal viewership consisting of a few thousand storm chasers and weather nuts. Just like all of the companies we work for every day, they have to turn a profit or no one gets a paycheck. A TV network or a business can 't pay its bills with topical purism and the goodness of their hearts. It's too bad it has to be that way, but welcome to the 'real world'.

[Robert Dewey]

But you have to admit that something is wrong with The "Weather" Channel when the majority of people tune into CNN or Fox News to get information on breaking weather stories (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc).

[Jon Person]

...P Allen Smith can grow tulips out his #$% for all I care...

Thanks, Shane, I need some brain bleach now. I can't stand P. Allen Thmith. Anyways, I think The Weather Channel is finally admitting that it has been replaced by the Internet. TWC was wonderful before the mid-nineties when it really was the fastest weather source available. All we had before then was the evening news. TWC couldn't ever hope to monopolize weather data, plus they dropped the ball when they should have been first-to-market on the Internet for weather, and now all the science channels are encroaching on their Storm Stories territory. I honestly can't think of what anyone would do with TWC if they bought it. The only thing really of value would be TWC's weather-localizing technology for local cable providers. If that technology were to be recycled into something more general like localized news content, then it might be reborn and also have a solid business plan.

Still, count me in for five bucks...

[George Tincher]

I use to think TWC was great up through the 1990's. I was a fan of Dr. John Scala and thought he did terrific work at the severe weather desk, as did Dr. Greg Forbes once he replaced Dr. Scala. I don't really think TWC catered to storm chasers or enthusiasts in those days at all. But they did focus on what really mattered.......WEATHER FORECASTS. Back then, you could turn TWC on at any hour of the day, 7 days a week and at least know that you would be able to see regular radar updates and local and national forecasts. I would think people in general, including chasers as well as the general public would be better served if they went back to that approach. After all, if you flip on TWC, what do you go there for? Of course! You wanna know what the weather is going to be like within the next 24 hours or the next several days. And you don't want to have to wait on the 6 o'clock news to get that info.

But what has TWC become since the 1990's? Now you never know what you are going to find when you go to that channel. But you know it probably won't have much to do with weather or the current forecast. Instead, it will be some goofy documentary done about an event a year old or more. And it will suck compared to any decent documentary done by the likes of The Discovery Channel, TLC, National Geographic or other such outlets that are experienced in creating such programs and make that their bread and butter. Or it will be P. Allen Smith telling you how to plant flowers. Or it will be Dr. Anna Marie giving you tips about allergies. Or it will be Dr. Heidi Cullen doing her Chicken Little routine about global warming and telling us all the sky is falling. Enough already!

Frankly, I don't give a damn about any of that stuff. I'm not interested in seeing it. If I want to see any of the above mentioned things, I will go with a different source that will do a much better job than TWC can do in creating such projects.

TWC needs to get back to basics here and go back to doing what made them successful in the first place. That's giving frequent weather updates and forecasts. They need to stop trying to be the damn Discovery Channel. They will always fail miserably when trying to compete with channels dedicated to that type of programming. They should just stick to showing the local forecasts, the 5 day forecast, travel info, cover breaking weather situations, show some radar updates and leave it that. Or if they insist on showing all of those crappy programs like Storm Stories, Atmospheres, Heidi Cullen's show, whatever it's called, P. Allen Smith, Dr. Anna Marie, etc, they should create a second spin-off channel in which to host all that stuff like other networks do when their programming schedules grow too large for one channel. That would leave the other channel for actual weather info. If they'd do that, I would actually watch, just like I use to do. But I have no interest in seeing the circus that TWC has become recently. It's a joke. And it's a total waste of time. Don't get me wrong, I think they have some excellent people who work there. So I am not blaming them. Truthfully, many of them probably feel much the same as we do. But the management there is pathetic.

I'll also agree with what other posters have stated, in that CNN, Fox, etc do a much better job handling breaking weather situations than TWC these days. CNN will break in during outbreaks to update tornado warnings and share pertinent info with viewers. I've seen them do this many times over the past few years, while TWC is busy airing some one hour long documentary about a weather event of long ago that's already been aired about a dozen times. Unreal.

[Craig Maire II]

I'll throw 50$ and 10$ in pop cans into the TWC kettle...:D

[Mike Peregrine]

I don't think anyone wants TWC to cater to chasers or become The Chase Channel. They just want it to be The Weather Channel again. Let's keep in mind that what made it successful in the first place was not it's current business model. I agree ... TWC is in serious trouble and Landmark knows it.

[Marcus Opitz]

As long as Dave Schwartz stays, I am all for it!

[David Draun]

I used to be glued to TWC when I was younger. Geez, I would hum local forecast tunes on occasion! The last time I had it on for a lengthy period of time was the Greensburg night. I thought Greg Forbes and the rest of the staff did pretty well at keeping everyone updated at what was going on. At least during the time I was watching, they didn't break away from coverage to do some stupid tangential subject. I also watched on the 8/22/07 Chicago outbreak day, and their coverage was pretty good as well. But I think back to 5/4/03 and the following days when Storm Stories was playing in the evenings, and all they showed was a crawler talking about severe weather and tornadoes in the Plains states. They may have broken away to update a warning or two, but it was only for 30 seconds or something. But overall, the weather coverage has slipped. I can't remember the last time I saw TWC badass, Jim Cantore on location somewhere, but then again I haven't been watching as much. I remember he was on location during the multi-day outbreaks back in 2003, it was pretty cool watching his crew get overrun by supercells on mulitple days. Anyway, I digress, but that's the kind of coverage TWC needs to have, and more frequently too.

I'll throw in a $5 for the StormTrack bid to buy TWC, lol.

[Forrest lambert]

well for me i grew up with the weather channel, if it wasnt for TWC i wouldnt like weather, in some way i am sad to see it go but on the other hand like the rest of you are saying its true that its gone down hill in a big way, how about all of us pitch in and turn the weather channel into the storm chase channel?? throw my $100 in for that:D

[Stephen Levine]

I agree with you, Forrest..
I'm game for storm chase channel.. Positioning for and intercepting if possible- tornadoes, lightning shows, monster squall lines, MCC's, blizzards, hurricanes, tropical depressions, etc. With lots of time for radar updates, breaking news, etc.
Be visual. Show the clouds, give the sense-based descriptions. Bring out the excitement.
Act dramatic but keep it safe.
Imagine "Supercell Season '08 or '09" being weather's TV version of the Superbowl.

[Kem Poyner]

TWC should have had their own team of skilled chasers and their own tornado intercept vehicles. Live broadcasts from supercells and hurricanes would have been a huge draw of viewers. They could have even had a red team and a blue team competeing against each other. ....viewers could vote chasers off the show...Ok I went overboard.

[Dan Cook]

After their poor performance tonight who'd want them? Major tornado outbreak going on and they're showing "When Weather made History".

[John Olexa]

I still watch it. But I'll tell you, whens there a weather event going on here at home. I'm turning to my local channels or weather underground on the computer.

[Damon Poole]

I've gotten to where I just watch long enough to check radar. I get my warnings from NOAA Weather Radio, and use the net to get my basic data.

[Terry Tyler]

After their poor performance tonight who'd want them? Major tornado outbreak going on and they're showing "When Weather made History".

i know it, i couldent believe what i was watching!

i just checked TWC for a minute yesterday, and they had abrahms and bettes running talking about some bull* while killer tornadoes were tearing across the country...after watching for a good 5-10 mins, i had to get to the local on the 8s, and wait through that to even see the warnings...when they come back, they showed the radar for about 3 or 4 mins and did a call in...but then it was back to the same old thing...

i couldent believe it! i thought the weather channel was supposed to focus in on those things!

im afraid it looks like the TWC is already sold...sold the hell out!

i couldent help but think about someone watching that silly stuff waiting for a warning...all the way until the power went out, and the roof and walls flew off!

[Justin E. Reed]

Hey, with them being worth about $5 billion dollars alone, they can do whatever the f they wanna do, but they need to focus more, and hire more pretty women to look at, lol.

[Terry Tyler]

Hey, with them being worth about $5 billion dollars alone, they can do whatever the f they wanna do, but they need to focus more, and hire more pretty women to look at, lol.

i agree...

but maybe theyd be worth a little bit more then $5billion if they revolutionized weather television instead of investing in these lousy TV series and talk shows...

i used to remember a commercial for the weather channel...there was this guy, and he was like all on the edge of his seat...goin whoaaaaa!! and all that, lol...and his wife come in the room, and she said..."honey what are you watching?" and he was like, "the weather channel"...

personally, i believe thats how it needs to be...

[Justin E. Reed]

I just wanna know where their HD format is? I've seen little symbols on certain shows, but come on, your an empire! They should have everything HD, hell HD mics for goodness sakes, to where you can hear them breathing too hard, sheesh. They are supposed to go HD this year, in selected markets, come on, some areas still have the OLD local on the 8's crap, that ain't right!

[Forrest lambert]

does anyone know when TWC is going off the air?

[Stephen Levine]

TWC should have had their own team of skilled chasers and their own tornado intercept vehicles. Live broadcasts from supercells and hurricanes would have been a huge draw of viewers. They could have even had a red team and a blue team competeing against each other. ....viewers could vote chasers off the show...Ok I went overboard.

Actually I don't think you went overboard at all. This to me is creative thinking and exactly that type of thing that would have brought weather to the status of high sports yet mixed with science.
Imagine as I had suggesed last week, if they actually had flown reporters to MO last night for live coverage...

[Terry Tyler]

Imagine as I had suggesed last week, if they actually had flown reporters to MO last night for live coverage...

thats what they need to do!

like when they go out to do live feeds on hurricanes, they should have their crews go out into a severe weather threat area and do live feeds when a storm shows up...

i know i was watching one time when they had a guy out there waiting for a squall line to come in...i thought that was pretty cool...like, if he described what he was looking at, and they had the radar up and all that and people discussing the situation at the weather desk...

man, if the weather channel did that...i might not even need to chase :D

[Ben Faber]

Very interesting read and agree with the many comments about how TWC isn't anywhere near what it used to be, but also understand how they are trying to cater to the masses with the non-weather fluff. TV and the media is way different today than it was 20+ years ago.

That said, I think something like TWC as it was in it's "heyday", could survive in a niche market if done correctly. Don't know if anyone here has watched RFD-TV (on DISH and DTV), it's basically public television aimed at the rural/farm lifestyle. They've done an excellent job with the programming which is very much a throwback to old TV and a nice break from the in-your-face TV of today. I believe they are a non-profit organization so advertising is at a bare minimum.

Anyway, I too long for the TWC as it once was. Could it or something like it make a comeback? I'd like to think so, but don't see it happening.

[Terry Tyler]

Don't know if anyone here has watched RFD-TV (on DISH and DTV), it's basically public television aimed at the rural/farm lifestyle. They've done an excellent job with the programming which is very much a throwback to old TV and a nice break from the in-your-face TV of today. I believe they are a non-profit organization so advertising is at a bare minimum.

i saw it on there, but ive never seen it...ill have to take a look at it sometime...

another good non-profit television network you might want to take a look at is linkTV...they show the stuff on there that other news agencies arent hard enough to show...or just dont care...

that kind of thought provoking television is a welcome break from the regular stuff on there...

for those of you who own comcast...they have a channel called "radar-vision" and it runs the NOAA weather radio and radar all day every day...

i still firmly believe that they need to have a way to dial into radars from directv...if you can do that stupid ass "game lounge" or tune into all that music, they might could put up a map of all the radar sites in the US and let you choose which one you want to look at with the flick of your wrist...

[Dan Nichols]

I'll throw in $10 if they brought back Lisa Mozer...... Another $20 if they show the local radar every 5 minutes, instead of "The 8's".......

All kidding aside: despite the "fluff", Realize, TWC's radar has improved tremendously in the past few years. Now you've got motion, close-up, and overall better accuracy. Remember when the red warning sign hogged the entire screen, just when the local radar became most crucial? Now they can do the same with a "crawler" on the bottom of the picture. However, I think TWC would indeed benefit by having more local radar, especially an ongoing image during all their "fluff" progs where now, one often waits 30 minutes for a radar.

[Mike Peregrine]

Resurrecting an old thread - looks like a closing is in the works (http://www.thestreet.com/s/ge-partners-close-to-weather-channel-purchase-report/newsanalysis/media/10424719.html?puc=_tscrss) with NBC Universal as the buyer and an approximate $3.5 bil payment. What the future holds is anybody's guess. NBC also runs local cable channels for weather in metropolitan areas.

[Mike Peregrine]

Well ... the deal was apparently really close. As of 5:00 pm eastern, the announcement (http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSWNA886720080706?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews) was made that the combination company "NBC/Universal" has gone through with the purchase of TWC. Will be interesting to see where this ultimately leads -

[Jason Foster]

I'd hate to be a met. on MSNBC....as I suspect they'll use the common source of TWC rather than their own. Guess the deal also means they'll switch to NBC affiliates for their stringer shots.

[Maggie Kahman]

...If you're in rural Nebraska under a tornado warning but it's sprinkling in Atlanta you're screwed". That one is pretty accurate.

hehe Shane, thats funny. I lol'ed at that one. But it IS rather true.:D

[Greg Blumberg]

I'd hate to be a met. on MSNBC....as I suspect they'll use the common source of TWC rather than their own. Guess the deal also means they'll switch to NBC affiliates for their stringer shots.

Anyone got any other ideas of some of the likely consequences from this purchase?