The Weather Channel and Virgin Media Create New TV, Online and Mobile Weather Service

The Weather Channel digital technology and data to power new weather solution for Virgin Media TiVo® and virginmedia.com

London – The Weather Channel today announced a partnership with leading entertainment and communications company Virgin Media to power weather services that extend across its TV, online and mobile platforms in the U.K.

Lynette Turnbull, Virgin Media’s head of multiscreen commercial development and product management, said “Virgin Media TiVo brings together incredible TV with the best of the web, so working with The Weather Channel is a natural partnership for us. Brits talking about the weather is a bit of a cliché, but combined with our popular online and mobile Internet properties, this multi-screen deal will add plenty of value for our millions of customers wherever and however they want to check the forecasts.”

Available on TV through Virgin Media TiVo, the U.K.’s first and most advanced connected TV service, The Weather Channel-branded app lets users check the weather over the next 24 hours and see a five-day forecast for a searchable location, and provides additional features and functionality, including the ability to save up to ten favourite locations.

On the homepage of virginmedia.com, one of the most visited web destinations in the U.K., a three-day forecast will be displayed for a chosen area by entering a U.K. town or postcode. Similarly, the current conditions for a selected area are prominently shown in the news and weather section on Virgin Media’s mobile portal (m.virginmedia.com).

Both the website and mobile site have quick links through to The Weather Channel website (www.weather.co.uk) for a full hourly and 10-day forecast. To promote the service and drive traffic to The Weather Channel properties, an advertising campaign is to run on the mobile site.

“Our strategic partnership with Virgin Media will power their weather information and data services across all platforms including TV, online and mobile. We are very excited to partner with Virgin Media and believe this landmark moment will drive accelerated growth for both companies in the U.K.,” said Patrick Vogt, president, The Weather Company International, Inc. “Weather touches every person and business every day, so weather really matters and through distribution partnerships and our own digital properties, we are committed to bringing the most accurate weather reports to the public anywhere, anytime.”

This strategic partnership is another example of The Weather Channel brand’s expansion within the U.K. and across Europe, extending its hyper-local, multi-platform weather offering available internationally as an app for mobile and tablet devices, online at uk.weather.com and on smart TVs.


The Weather Company International:
Through The Weather Channel, weather.com, Weather Underground and third-party publishing partners, the company provides millions of people every day with the world’s best weather forecasts, content and data, connecting with them through television, online, mobile and tablet screens. Since 1982, TWC has developed an impressive brand in the United States and as a global brand, has traffic from every country in the world and continues to expand its reach domestically and internationally. The Weather Company’s global reach includes a series of websites online and on mobile browsers, and its mobile and tablet applications support up to 40 languages. TWC is owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press.



Virgin Media:
Virgin Media is the first provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone and home phone services in the UK. The company delivers ultrafast broadband connections to over half of all UK homes, with speeds of up to 120Mb, and is expanding this cable network – the result of a multi-billion pound investment – to reach thousands more people across the country. Virgin Media has developed the most advanced interactive television service, bringing together broadcast TV, thousands of hours of on demand programming and the best of the web in a single set-top box powered by TiVo. The company was the first to offer HD TV and 3D on demand to millions of UK households. Virgin Media also operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world’s first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country. Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange (VMED).