The Weather Channel Is For Sale

According to The New York Times, The Weather Channel is for sale by owner Landmark. The price is estimated to be about $5 billion. That number seems low.

The cable operation has reaches more than 87 million homes, or about 95% of all cable households.

Programming costs are probably low. It is safe to assume that anchors get only modest pay and that access to National Weather Service data is cheap, if not free.

comScore puts weather.com's audience at over 34.1 million unique visitors in November. That ranks in No.16 in the US and ahead of the audiences of the CBS (CBS) online properties, Comcast's (CMCSA) online operations, Disney (DIS), and ESPN.

The sale of a property like this only comes around every few years.

Douglas A. McIntyre