The Weather Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by The Weather Company, itself owned by a consortium that is owned in turn by NBCUniversal and investment firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital – and includes the online weather services Weather Underground and Intellicast, and weather data and software company Weather Services International (WSI) among its properties.vThe Weather Channel has its headquarters located in Cumberland, Georgia, near Atlanta.
Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news and analysis, along with documentaries and entertainment programming related to weather. In addition to its programming on the cable channel, TWC also provides forecasts for terrestrial and satellite radio stations, newspapers and websites, and maintains an extensive online presence at weather.com and through a set of mobile applications for smartphones and tablet computers. A sister network, Weatherscan, is a digital cable and satellite service that offers 24-hour automated local forecasts and radar imagery.
As of February 2015, The Weather Channel was received by approximately 97.3 million American households that subscribe to a pay television service (83.6% of U.S. households with at least one television set), which gave it the highest national distribution of any U.S. cable channel. However, it was subsequently dropped by Verizon FiOS (losing its approximately 5.5 millions subscribers), giving the title of most distributed network to HLN. Actual viewership of the channel averaged 210,000 during 2013 and has been declining for several years. Content from The Weather Channel is available for purchase from the NBCUniversal Archives.
