Byron Allen’s quickly expanding Allen Media Group has made a multi-platform deal with digital giant Google to use the Google Cloud as its data infrastructure and carry The Weather Channel and other networks on Google’s YouTube TV.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Allen has described Allen Media Group as a “digital first company.”

Using the Google Cloud, with its data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, will give Allen Media Group better connections and relationships with its audiences and enable it to build apps faster and make smarter business decisions, the companies said.

Also: Byron Allen’s New Digital Division Launches Streaming Sports.TV

Allen’s The Weather Channel is expected to be the first of Allen’s networks to added to YouTube TV. Other networks are also expected to be added in 2022. Google will also work with Allen to bring Allen’s streaming offerings to more devices via Google Play, Google TV and Android TV, in addition to Android phones.

Also: Univision in Long-Term Cloud Deal with Google

“All of our Allen Media Group properties are growing at an unprecedented rate, and our partnership with Google is a key step in our continued global transformation," said Byron Allen, founder, chairman, and CEO of Allen Media Group. “By leveraging Google's technology, distribution, marketing, ad sales platforms, enormous capital support, and expertise, Allen Media Group will seamlessly build and enhance our reach and revenue worldwide."

The ability to handle, analyze and act on data is becoming increasingly important to media companies, especially as more viewers select digital options to consume content. 

Also: MadHive To Spend $100 Million To Expand Google Cloud Usage

“Allen Media Group’s vast portfolio of properties represents a tremendous opportunity to engage audiences worldwide,” said Don Harrison, president of global partnerships, Google. “We’re thrilled to partner with Allen Media Group to offer Google’s secure technology solutions, data analytics and distribution platforms as it continues to transform its business digitally and connect with more viewers globally.” ■

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Television said it renewed four if its syndicated weekly series from The Weather Channel for the fall of 2022 and fall 2023.

The series--Storm of Suspicion, Weather Gone Viral, SOS: How to Survive and Top 10 are currently in production at The Weather Channel and distributed to local broadcasters by Entertainment Studios Television.

The shows are cleared in 99% of the country and appear on stations owned by station groups including Fox , E.W. Scripps, Nexstar Media, Gray Television, CBS, Hearst Television, Cox Media Group, Sunbeam Television, Hubbard Broadcasting, Tegna, Graham Media, Weigel Broadcasting, Morgan Murphy Media, Mission Broadcasting, Lockwood Broadcasting, Block Communications, Waypoint Media, Sarkes Tarzian Inc., Manship Media, Vision Alaska, McKinnon Broadcasting, Morris Multimedia and Allen Media Broadcasting.

“Weather is the number one news driver for local television stations,” said Byron Allen, founder/chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios. “Storm of Suspicion, Weather Gone Viral, SOS: How to Survive and Top 10 are four outstanding series from one of the most trusted and respected brands in all of television, The Weather Channel. These shows are exceptionally compelling and appeal to all demographics. Our station partners realize the enormous value these series offer to complement their local weather coverage.”

Storm of Suspicion is about situations in which weather played a role in solving or covering up a crime.

Weather Gone Viral features video of dangerous and extreme weather events shared online.

SOS: How To Survive tells the tales of people who are lost, trapped or mission, with lessons on how to avoid mistakes that lead to deadly situations.

Top 10 is about heroes, record setters, extreme adventurers and the world’s weather. ■

The Weather Channel said it signed a multi-year exclusive sponsorship deal with BlueTriton Brands, which markets bottled waters including Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Zephyrhills and Ozark.

The Weather Channel will produce custom content for BlueTriton dealing with hurricane season and getting ready for high temperatures in summer.

The network will also send its on-air meteorologists to BlueTriton springs to discuss their histories and the company’s conservation and sustainability effort. The Weather Channel’s Chris Warren visited the Poland Spring source in Maine.

The content produced will appear on Weather Channel programs such as America’s Morning Headquarters and on the company’s Weather Underground site.

Bottles of the product will be on set and distributed to communities during weather emergencies.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We’re honored to be working with The Weather Channel to educate consumers on the importance of being properly hydrated and prepared, especially in times of extreme weather conditions,” said Laetitia Allexant, VP of marketing at BlueTriton Brands. “Providing healthy hydration solutions in sustainable ways has always been at the core of what we do, that’s why we’re also excited to bring new sustainability and water conservation content to the TWC platform. This content will help consumers learn more about where their spring water is sourced from and how we can all partner together to help conserve our planet’s most precious resources.”

The BlueTriton Brands sponsorship will also extend to Pattrn, The Weather Channel's climate, environment and sustainability platform, which can be viewed via Local Now, Plex and Tubi, in addition to being on Pattrn.com.

“In a year of record highs and storms, making sure you have enough water on hand, in the house, or on your store shelves has never been so crucial,” said Barbara Bekkedahl, president of Weather Group, ad sales and client partnerships. “This is one of the many reasons why we’re so excited to announce this sponsorship with BlueTriton Brands, to make sure that not only is our Weather Channel family of viewers and staff staying hydrated and healthy, but we’re also showing easy, concrete steps each person can take to help be prepared for inclement weather.”■ 

The Weather Channel said its primetime programming lineup for fall will include two new original weekly series, Uncharted Adventure and Frozen Gold.

The network is also bringing back Weather Gone Viral for its seventh season.

Uncharted Adventure will have its debut on Nov. 7 and takes The Weather Channel into the travel genre. It takes viewers to exotic destinations, fascinating cultures and natural wonders. The series is hosted by adventurer and marine biologist Mike Corey.

Frozen Gold premieres Nov. 14 and follows six Americans as they leave their homes and jobs to explore for gold in Greenland, where melting ice sheets have exposed what is believed to be large deposits of the precious metal. 

Also: Weather Channel Launching Subscription Streaming Service

“Our viewers keep asking for more adventure and travel programming on The Weather Channel and we are delivering,” said Nora Zimmett, executive VP and chief content officer at The Weather Channel television network. “These new weekly series are fun and entertaining but also inform, educate and invite audiences to travel vicariously to places they may have never seen. With the global pandemic shutting down vacations worldwide, now our viewers have the chance to explore the world from the safety of their homes.”

In season seven, Weather Gone Viral gives viewers access to extreme weather phenomena including tornadoes and hurricanes, which have been captured on camera.

Frndly TV is adding Allen Media Group’s Recipe.TV channel and Local Now streaming service to its family-oriented, low-priced over-the-top television service as part of an agreement to extend its relationship with Allen Media Group’s Weather Channel.

The deal means that at the end of June, Frndly TV will offer viewers 18 linear channels. Frndly TV said that it will be able to keep in place its current price structure, which starts at $5.99 a month.

Allen Media Group is headed by founder and CEO Byron Allen, who has been buying up TV stations and pushing marketers to spend more of their ad dollars with minority owned media outlets.

“In addition to extending our carriage arrangement for The Weather Channel, we’re thrilled to make two more of our flagship content platforms -- Recipe.TV, and our streaming service Local Now -- available to Frndly TV subscribers,” said Allen. “Our multiple Emmy-nominated network Recipe.TV and our streaming service Local Now offer compelling and vibrant lifestyle content with an unmatched combination of customized local news and information, weather, traffic, and sports.”

Recipe.TV programming includes Paris Bistro Cooking with Edward Delling-Williams, who was recently nominated for an Emmy award as outstanding culinary host.

Frndly has been bucking the trend among over-the-top TV services and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) by keeping its price low, adding subscribers while maintaining profitability.

“We are very pleased to add two great channels in Recipe.TV and Local Now to our lineup,” said Michael McKenna, chief programmer officer of Frndly TV. “Recipe.TV perfectly fills a programming genre that our customers were asking us for. And Local Now – with its hyper-local focus on more than 225 cities across the U.S. – gives us a quality news and information offering. Both are very welcome, family friendly additions to our Frndly TV lineup.”

Wibbitz, a Tel Aviv-based maker of a text-to-video platform that automates the production process onf online video, has raised $20 million in series C funding from a group of investors including The Weather Channel, Bertelsmann Digital Investments, the Associated Press and TF1 Group.  

The new participants join existing investors like NantMobile, lool Ventures, and Horizons Ventures and the money will be used to make key hires across Wibbitz’s development, product, design, sales, marketing, support and in-house editorial teams. The funding will also be invested in advancing artificial intelligence technologies and automation capabilities of its web-based platform and to launch products built for new markets and use cases.

Wibbitz most recently completed an $8 million Series B funding round in 2015, and with today's announcement, the company's total funding is now $30.8 million.

"Today's funding not only underscores the rising value of video, but also the power of AI and automation technologies to reduce tedious, production-related processes," Wibbitz co-founder and CEO Zohar Dayan said in a statement. "Our publishing partners spend under six minutes, on average, producing original videos that drive four times the engagement of text-only content. "

Wibbitz's customer base includes more than half of the top 100 digital media companies in the U.S. and Europe with recent partnerships being formed with Bloomberg, Cox Media Group, SmarterTravel, REVOLT Media & TV, TEN: A Discovery Communications Company, Evolve Media, and the Weather Channel. The company employs more than 60 people in three offices in New York, Tel Aviv, and Paris, with plans to open more in the coming year.

The Weather Channel's investment comes a year after partnering with Wibbitz to automate video creation for its OTT streaming service, Local Now. Editors at Local Now use the Wibbitz platform to produce videos around hyper-local news in weather, politics, sports, and business to publish on platforms including Apple TV, Roku, Sling TV, desktop and mobile devices.

"At The Weather Channel we are deeply committed to innovation and growth, and after seeing the capabilities and potential of Wibbitz's technology, we've realized we don't want to just adopt it for ourselves, we also want to have proverbial skin in the game and ensure media companies are heard in the process of product development," said Dave Shull, CEO of The Weather Channel television network. " We're looking forward to working with Wibbitz closely to contribute to the future usability and functionality of the platform that will meet the needs of every brand around the globe."

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Lindsay Gardner has been around the block long enough to know what’s what in the programming business.

A veteran of both sides of the negotiating table, Gardner has probably forgotten more about the business than most will ever learn. He was at Fox Networks Group for eight years through 2007, eventually rising to president, affiliate sales and marketing, and spent six years at Cox Communications, including time as executive director, programming. He also served as executive director, planning and new business, at In Demand, the MSO-backed provider of pay-per-view and video-on-demand services.

Now as chief content officer for Layer3 TV, a startup that piggybacks a video service onto incumbent broadband networks, offering a full-freight video service and top-notch customer service it calls “concierge cable,” Gardner is entering a new chapter in a long and illustrious career. But even though the jobs and roles have changed over the years, Gardner has learned a very important lesson about the programming business: You don’t get what you don’t ask for, and you don’t get anything if you don’t ask nicely.

“[It’s] walking into [A+E Networks president of distribution] David Zagin’s office with my palms up and saying, ‘We love A+E, we love Lifetime, we love Viceland, would you work with us?’” Gardner said. “A lot of it is just asking, and everybody comes through.”

For Layer3 TV, that approach is forging unique partnerships with programmers. Gardner said he receives an unprecedented level of support from content providers, ranging from appearances by Nickelodeon characters at launches to billboards touting programming.

“ESPN has turned over its whole website homepage in our markets, promoting us,” Gardner added. “Pac-12 Networks takes out billboards screaming that we’re the exclusive place to find the USCUCLA baseball game in HD. Right down the line, partly because we’re new — and they love that we carry all of their channels in HD, that we have the best picture quality, that our guide seems to have licked and solved the problem of there’s 500 channels and nothing on — and partly because we’ve asked nicely.”

Layer3 TV currently is available in five markets — Chicago; Los Angeles; Washington; Dallas, Texas; and Longmont, Colo. — and is readying a sixth launch in New York. The service offers about 250 channels, including several in 4K with more to come.

The product is unique in that, in a climate where every new entrant is touting lower costs and skinnier packages, Layer3 TV is offering more. Gardner said that’s just what its customers want.

“They love cable,” Gardner said of Layer3 customers. “They’re looking for something better, and we become their new cable company.”

And that means, in an era when most distributors want to break up the programming bundle, Gardner wants everything — and he means everything — a content provider has to offer.

For example, Layer3 is working with The Weather Channel on new leading-edge apps and 4K content for the channel, which it plans to add shortly. With The Tennis Channel, Layer3 is working on providing a value-added package that will show all seven courts at Roland Garros for next year’s French Open. And in a deal with Fox, Layer3 is airing all of 30 sports events the network is producing in 4K this year.

Other programmers are using Layer3 as a test bed for emerging technologies or offerings. Gardner mentioned tests for mini a la carte packages that would take one specific show or genre and offer content tailored only around that specific theme.

“It’s possible to assemble assets in a way that is tailored for individual passions, and there is value in it, and we’re quietly testing those sorts of initiatives,” Gardner said.

Computer giant IBM is in advanced talks with The Weather Channel Cos. concerning a purchase of its digital assets, according to a report on tech news website Re/Code.

The Weather Channel Cos. include is linear cable channel and online assets like weather.com, Weather Underground and Weather Services International. The assets have been unofficially on the block for about a year,  and in August co-owners The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital hired investment bankers J.P. Morgan and PJT Partners to begin entertaining offers for the company.  NBC Universal, which also owns a stake in The Weather Channel, is not expected to make a bid for the company.

According to re/code, IBM is in advanced talks with The Weather Channel, but a still could still fall apart. IBM partnered with The Weather Channel earlier this year with its WSI business-to-business initiative to provide reap-time weather data and analytics to enable communities to predict natural disasters before they happen. Re/Code said a Weather purchase could provide sophisticated weather analysis for IBM’s cloud computing initiatives like a law enforcement database it is constructing.   

The Weather Channel has come under fire recently, being dropped in March by Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV service. In 2014 DirecTV dropped the channel for about three months.  The network, which is available in about 100 million homes, has said it is scaling back on reality programming in favor of more weather forecasting information. 

Blackstone and Bain Capital teamed with Comcast’s NBC Universal to buy the channel in 2008 for about $3.5 billion. In the second quarter, Comcast wrote down its investment in the channel to about $86 million, $250 million less than its original valuation.   

A downpour of TV content is forecast for this week on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it unleashed on the Gulf Coast region in general and on New Orleans in particular.

In 2005, cable networks were among the first outlets to show the images of the stunning destruction to property and people’s lives in the days following the storm. Other specials through the years, such as HBO’s Emmy-winning When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, helped chronicle the effects on life on the Gulf Coast in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

This week The Weather Channel is leading the charge with a week of Katrina-themed content, including Katrina 2065, a special that looks at likely scenarios that could take place if Katrina hit 50 years from now. On Friday, Aug. 28, TWC will air a special report, Katrina: 10 Years Later, with Al Roker and Stephanie Abrams.

Also that Friday, TV One will look at the plight of education in New Orleans a decade after Katrina as part of its daily News One Now morning news series hosted by Roland Martin.

BET on Aug. 26 will premiere a news special, Katrina 10 Years Later: Through Hell in High Water, that will chronicle the lives of a diverse group of people who survived Katrina.

On the cable news network front, CNN will debut on Aug. 24 Katrina: The Storm That Never Stopped, in which network anchor Anderson Cooper travels back to the Gulf Coast and looks to reconnect with those residents and people he spoke with a decade ago following the storm.

On the digital front, offerings will include six-part documentary series New Orleans, Here & Now, from Time Inc. and Rampante, debuting Aug. 27 on Time.com and other platforms. It’s about six people living in New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina and is the first original premium video product from Time. Weather.com on Aug. 25 will stream nine hours of continuous highlights from 2005 Katrina coverage, starting at the same time as the 2005 coverage began and featuring clips from The Weather Channel.

And in real life (apart from TV), FYI has teamed with the affordable housing non-profit Make It Right to build a solar-powered new tiny home in New Orleans for a middle school teacher. On Aug. 28, they will host a house-warming event at the new 469-square-foot domicile in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, including Tiny House Nation host John Weisbarth.

— R. Thomas Umstead

Think Tank to FCC: Charter-TWC Deal Should Sail Through

Free-market think tank The Free State Foundation has released a paper outlining the benefits to consumers and broadband of a Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable merger.

Free State senior fellow Seth Cooper said the purpose is not to endorse or oppose the deal, but instead to outline the key considerations the Federal Communications Commission should be, well, considering. But Cooper clearly likes the cut of the deal’s jib and suggests it deserves fairly smooth sailing through the FCC and DOJ deal-vetting process.

He said the potential downsides for consumers appear minimal, and maybe nonexistent, and drew a distinction between this proposed merger and Comcast’s earlier play for TWC, abandoned after the Justice Department and the FCC agreed it should not go through.

Concerns about program withholding or broadband domination don’t apply to a Charter- TWC deal, Cooper said (though he does not concede they should have deep-sixed the earlier deal, either). “Whereas Comcast-TWC would have resulted in a nationwide broadband consumer subscription market share of about 30%, Charter-TWC would result in a nationwide broadband market share of about 21%. And those are numbers for wireline broadband only. The broadband market is much bigger: 43% of all broadband connections are now mobile, with next-generation wireless networks increasingly offering consumers three or more competitive mobile video viewing options.”

In any event, he said, the FCC should not look at “static” indicators like market share or concentration, but instead view the deal in the light of free-market dynamism, a light in which the deal looks good for consumer welfare, he said.

Cooper also called for a swift review, which may already be a bridge too far. The FCC at press time had yet to launch the comment cycle or start the informal shot clock on the deal, as it is still mulling the issue of how to treat third-party access to confidential information submitted by the parties involved.

— John Eggerton

Private equity firms Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group have held early discussions with two top investment bankers concerning their stakes in The Weather Channel, including a possible sale of their interests, according to reports.

According to a report in Bloomberg News, the buyout firms have approached investment bankers J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs concerning their possible options, including an outright sale of all or part of the company. Bloomberg said that The Weather Channel has not begun a process or hired bankers yet. The channel, which is fully distributed in more than 100 million homes, was purchased in 2008 for $3.5 billion by Blackstone, Bain and Comcast’s NBC Universal.

While fully distributed channels have attracted high prices in the past, The Weather Channel has come under fire recently for its programming. In January DirecTV dropped the channel for three months – it later signed up with weather service Weather Nation instead – complaining that the network filled its prime time slots with reality programming instead of focusing on weather forecasts. The Weather Channel returned to DirecTV in April, after it agreed to pull back on reality programming and focus more on local weather updates.

Officials at The Weather Channel, Blackstone, NBC Universal and Bain all declined comment.

Sources familiar with the matter said that while “very preliminary” discussions have occurred between the buyout firms and bankers, nothing is imminent.

“I wouldn’t attach a lot of significance to it,” said one person familiar with the companies.

Investors also seemed unfazed by a potential Weather Channel deal. Comcast stock was down about 15 cents each (0.3%) to $56.83 per share in Friday afternon trading.