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...apparently the limit when media conglomerate NBC Universal, along with private equity firms Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group, agreed on Sunday to pay the enormous $3.5 billion price tag for The Weather Channel. Available in some 96 million American homes, the Weather Channel is the country's third most widely distributed cable channel. It also runs the 14th most popular site on the web, weather.com. But observers are already questioning whether NBC, which is owned by General Electric, overpaid for the property. NBC, after all, only paid $1.25 billion for the cable channel Bravo in 2002, while CBS acquired...
...When the channel first went up for sale early this year, there were several bidders, including Time Warner (the parent company of TIME), but by last month there was just one suitor left. "I think that part of the reason the other stations backed out is because they couldn't justify paying that much," says David Trainer of New Constructs, a business valuation company in Franklin, Tenn. "If it doesn't make financial sense, the next reason to buy is ego. 'I got a new toy. My kingdom is larger...
...have other motivations for its new acquisition - particularly on the Web and in digital broadcasts. While consumers have little reason to type nbc.com into their browsers, The Weather Channel's site attracts some 40 million unique monthly visitors, according to Nielsen Online. The merger could help drive new traffic to NBC's other digital content. What's more, The Weather Channel, which is currently owned by Landmark Communications, has a brand-new $60 million state-of-the-art, high-definition recording studio in Atlanta, from which it can produce digital broadcasts both for television and the Web. Viewers can also...
With rumors running rife about General Electric planning to unload NBC Universal altogether, some analysts think The Weather Channel acquisition was an effort to spruce up NBC's online portfolio (which also includes MSNBC.com and CNBC.com) before selling the entertainment arm to a digital media company such as Google (which owns YouTube) or Apple. "The Weather Channel would add some icing to the cake," says Nicholas Heymann, an analyst for Sterne Agee & Leach. As syndication fees have evaporated and profit margins have thinned, TV companies have become less attractive assets. GE "has to start lighting a fire under its stock...
...compromise--where, after all, any meaningful change will have to take place. If you want to see that world on Planet Green, look not at the glamorous celeb shows but at the commercials--including ads for chemical bathroom cleansers and processed, nonorganic snacks. Which points out something that the channel's upscale shows could stand to remember. It's one thing to live on Planet Green when you're a star. The rest of us have to get by on Planet Earth...