Mark your calendar for Mediaweek, October 29-30 in New York City. We’ll unpack the biggest shifts shaping the future of media—from tv to retail media to tech—and how marketers can prep to stay ahead. Register with early-bird rates before sale ends!
The Weather Channel laid off some 7 percent of its work force today according to independently confirmed reports (Mediabistro first reported the news). The network is owned, as of 2007, by a consortium composed of Bain Capital, NBCUniversal and the Blackstone Group, and is among the most widely-distributed networks on cable.
Since the acquisition by its new owners, TWC has lost all of its original meteorologists and has begun to use talent from the NBCU stable, including Al Roker, whose production company has played a significant role in the network's expansion into serial content.
The network issued a statement regarding the layoffs: "In late September we began an effort to reorganize our company into business units based around our customers and the products and services we create and deliver to them. This effort was recently concluded and has resulted in the elimination of positions in several divisions of the company. With these organizational changes and our new structure, TWCC is better positioned for future growth. Employees who are directly affected by this position elimination or reorganization have been informed and we are working closely with them through this period of transition."
Given TWC's distribution, it is still an enormously profitable property. The company entered a brief carriage dispute with Dish in 2010, but the conflict was resolved without any interruption and it remains far ahead of its largest competitor, AccuWeather.
