Byron Allen continues to expand his Entertainment Studios media holdings with the purchase of The Weather Channel basic cable TV network. Through his company Allen Media, Allen has acquired the Weather Group, parent company of The Weather Channel TV network and Local Now streaming service, from The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Blackstone Group and Comcast/NBCUniversal.
No dollar figure has been revealed, but according to sources the purchase price was around $300 million.
“The Weather Channel is one of the most trusted and extremely important cable networks, with information vitally important to the safety and protection of our lives,” said Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman, & CEO of Entertainment Studios. “We welcome The Weather Channel, which has been seen in American households for nearly four decades, to our cable television networks division. The acquisition of The Weather Channel is strategic, as we begin our process of investing billions of dollars over the next five years to acquire some of the best media assets around the world.”
Allen, a comedian-turned-entrepreneur, has been growing his Entertainment Studios, which became the largest independent producer of first-run syndicated programming. In 2009, Allen launched six 24-hour HD television networks: Pets.TV, Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, Cars.TV, ES.TV, and MyDestination.TV.
In the past few years he has also emerged as an indie film producer and distributor acquiring Freestyle Releasing in 2015. His recently movie successes include 47 Meters Down and Scott Cooper’s Hostiles, and his 2018 pics via Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures include Toronto Film Festival buys Chappaquiddick and Replicas.
