Allen buys Weather Channel for $300m

Entertainment Studios, the LA-based company founded by television mogul Byron Allen, has acquired The Weather Channel for a reported US$300m.

Byron Allen

Under the deal, Entertainment Studios has purchased parent company The Weather Group, streaming service Local Now, as well as the basic cable network, from private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital and NBCUniversal/Comcast Corp.

The price is a fraction of the US$3.5bn the consortium paid Landmark Media Enterprises (then Landmark Communications) for the cable network in 2008.

Allen’s firm has not acquired The Weather Group’s digital assets such as website weather.com, which were bought by tech giant IBM in 2015 for around US$2bn.

“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,” said Allen. “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.”

David Shull, CEO of Weather Channel, said he was proud to be joining one of the “largest emerging global media companies.”

“Byron Allen’s purchase of our innovative and forward-thinking organisation will increase the value we bring to our viewers, distributors, and advertisers,” he added.

Allen, who owns Entertainment Studios entirely and serves as CEO and chairman, set up his outfit in 1993, building it into the TV and film business it is today.

The Entertainment Studios Network operates eight digital and satellite channels, including Cars.TV, and its film distribution arm Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures had success with shark-themed horror 47 Meters Down in 2017.