IBM said it closed the acquisition of The Weather Company’s technology and web-based businesses and that Weather CEO David Kenny was named head of IBM’s Watson technology platform.
IBM did not acquire the Weather Channel cable TV network.
IBM plans to expand weather.com into five new markets, including China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Japan.
“The Weather Company’s extremely high-volume data platform, coupled with IBM Cloud and the advanced cognitive computing capabilities of Watson, is unsurpassed in the Internet of Things,” said John E. Kelly, IBM’s senior VP, cognitive solutions and research. “This rich platform provides our clients significant competitive advantage as they link their business and sensor data with weather and other pertinent information in real-time. We can arm entire industries with deep multimodal insights to help enterprises gain clarity and take action on the oceans of data being generated around them.”
Now doing business as The Weather Channel Television Network, the cable network plans to have a have heightened focus on innovation, first-class storm coverage and hyper-localized weather information available its TV platforms including: The Weather Channel, WeatherScan and Local Now.
“The TV landscape is a rapidly changing environment, and we are continuing to identify ways to provide our viewers with the content they need most,” said Dave Shull (pictured), CEO of the Weather Channel Television Network. “With our recently launched over-the-top (OTT) product, Local Now, viewers will have access to real-time, hyper-local weather, news, sports and traffic content. Currently available on Sling TV, this innovative product, powered by leading content providers, delivers a unique viewing experience that gives information that’s relevant to viewers and their day.”
Shull said that as as viewers look at other mediums for accessing content, they are turning to The Weather Channel times of severe weather. Viewers want the context and expertise from our meteorologists, and our ratings success during Winter Storm Jonas is a testament of our value as a unique and necessary avenue of programming in the subscription television business,” he said.
