With Comcast cutting its investment into the network, subscribers down an industry-leading 11.2 percent since 2011, and no agreement in sight to get back onto the program guide of Verizon FiOS, one of the pay-TV ecosystem's last big indie networks is considering over-the-top options.
"The old cable model is sort of like the DVD model of Netflix," Weather Channel CEO David Kenny told entertainment tabloid site TheWrap. Without going into detail on what OTT plans the network has, he said the Weather Channel "won't be a linear channel the way we know it today."
Kenny also said the second quarter was its most profitable ever.
Of course, looking at recent events surrounding the privately held channel, it's hard to understand how that is possible
Last week, during its second quarter earnings call, Comcast said it took a $252 million impairment charge related to its 2008 goodwill investment into the network. Comcast valued its stake in the Weather Channel at $86 million, down from $335 million at the end of 2014.
Meanwhile, the Cumberland, Ga.-based programmer, owned by a conglomerate of companies including Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, was able to end a blackout on DirecTV earlier this year. But it has been off Verizon FiOS since early March.
The carriage agreements the Weather Channel is managing to make are coming without a bump in license fees. The channel renewed its carriage agreement with Dish Network in April, but the terms were reportedly flat with the last deal. And the Weather Channel agreed to add its programming to Dish's new OTT product, Sling TV.
Then there are the subscriber losses. The Weather Channel is now in 89.7 million homes, down from nearly 100 million just four years ago.
For more:
- read this story from TheWrap
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