The Weather Channel Has Best February Ratings in Four Years

In a month that saw several regions, especially New England, battered by winter storms Linus, Marcus, Neptune, Octavia, Pandora, Quantum and Remus, fans looked to The Weather Channel to give them the latest on an unending pattern of winter weather. During February, The Weather Channel averaged 292K Total Audience (P2+) across the broadcast month, the network's strongest February performance since 2011.

"These numbers make it clear, when there are important weather events happening people of all ages turn to TV - and when they turn to TV they turn to The Weather Channel,” said David Clark, president of The Weather Channel. “We have made dramatic improvements to modernize our storm coverage capabilities, and it's heartening to see audiences respond."

To cover the storms, The Weather Channel deployed more crews and meteorologists around the clock over more consecutive days than any winter in its history, leveraging it's new weather expert hub "The Lab" and the company's superior forecasting capabilities. Ratings and other highlights included:

• The Weather Channel averaged 292K in total audience (P2+) across the broadcast month, our strongest performance since 2011, even beating February 2013, which included the massive Winter Storm Nemo.
• This audience was not only the network's largest, but also the network's most engaged over the same period,with the average viewer spending over an hour each week watching the network  (time spent viewing (TSV) of 66 minutes).
• Reaching 80MM in Feb '15, Weather Channel was also the only major cable network (defined as a network with a monthly reach of 50MM+) to see its reach grow year-over-year.
• Along with the growth in total audience, The Weather Channel is seeing its core demographic (P25-54) grow bigger and more engaged.In total day, Feb 2015 (96k) outperformed the prior year by +26% and time spent viewing (TSV) grew by +28%. Also in February 2015 vs. February 2014:
  • Live programming grew +20% with coverage of several winter storms
  • Original programming grew +47%
  • Most dayparts posted double-digit gains across the month
• Original programming continued its winning streak, on pace to register its 8th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.
  With new co-hosts, “AMHQ” posted its best monthly average (89K) during the 7-10am time period.
  During weekday mornings, “Wake Up with Al” saw an increase of +58% over the prior year’s average for the 5-7am block (84K vs 53K).  This was the highest performance for the block since 2013.
• Weekend mornings (9a-12p) on The Weather Channel was the top grossing daypart, averaging a 146K (+54% yoy)
• Fans were a big part of the storytelling during the February winter weather, sharing thousands of videos with The Weather Channel for use on the network, weather.com and The Weather Channel mobile apps.
• The Weather Channel storm tracker Jim Cantore became a part of the winter story in February, as the video of him reacting to thundersnow became one of the most watched videos and a trending topic across social media.

While meteorological winter ended this weekend, neither the season or coverage on The Weather Channel is letting up. Live coverage from Boston continues next week as the city approaches and will likely surpass snowfall records. “AMHQ” (mornings from 7 - 10 a.m. ET) will be live from Boston with co-hosts Sam Champion and Jim Cantore telling the stories of a city managing the widespread impacts of this record-breaking winter.

Sourcing: All data points: Nielsen Media Research, L+SD. 1-minute qualifier. Total Day = MSU 6a-6a. All dates Nielsen Broadcast Calendar, note that 1Q15 = 12/29/14-02/22/15 vs 12/30/13-02/23/14. Original Programming = Long-form programming only. Note that Weather Channel did not have DirecTV carriage in February 2014, which represented a household universe of approximately 19.8M homes.

karen anderson the weather channel

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