As weather becomes more volatile The Weather Company doesn’t plan to let clouds (or maybe more like thunder and lightning lately) get it down. Instead, it sees opportunity to help broadcasters and streamers automate and monetize weather content in ways that up engagement and revenues, at a time when The Weather Company President Sheri Bachstein views weather forecast data as ever more critical.
StreamTV Insider sat down with Bachstein in Las Vegas at the NAB Show last week to discuss the latest on weather content and its ReelSphere platform, which provides media customers with automated and localized weather segments that aim to both keep viewers tuned in and, starting at the end of this month, attract potential advertisers to drive revenue for streamers.
The Weather Company includes digital consumer properties of The Weather Channel and Weather Underground apps, as well as flagship Weather website, which were acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners from IBM in a deal announced in 2023. The Weather Channel linear TV network is separately owned by Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group following a 2018 acquisition that also included streamer LocalNow.
As for Bachstein, the executive transitioned from her former role as CEO of The Weather Company into the current position of president in November 2024 after the Francisco purchase. She now leads the enterprise side of the business, overseeing advertising, aviation, media, and government and defense products and client portfolios that leverage the company’s weather data and intelligence tools.
Within its enterprise segment, and media specifically, The Weather Co provides first and foremost weather and forecasting data, as well as software and mapping technologies that help networks and broadcasters visualize that data and tell the weather story. It counts around 140 meteorologists and data scientists that work on forecasts and as of March was the first operational user of the Joint Effort for Data Assimilation Integration (JEDI) within its atmospheric forecasting system – which allows it to take multiple inputs, such as data from sensors on an airplane or in a cellphone, to improve forecast accuracy.
Bachstein told STV Insider The Weather Company has been serving forecasting data, weather graphics and data visualization and mapping tools for broadcasters for decades, but now, like the industry, is following consumers and its customers on the shift to streaming, CTV and FAST and other digital platforms.
Automating workflows, replacing streaming slate with ReelSphere
Its latest platform is ReelSphere, which debuted in 2024 and she noted was initially created with the primary goal of helping automate and streamline workflows with help from AI and its Max platform.
ReelSphere enables broadcasters, streamers or other digital players to get “snackable” video weather programs that can be set up once and then automated for various, localized weather segments or scenes. For example, the platform can deliver weather data and location-specific visuals for a segment that shows current weather conditions, the 10-day forecast and a severe weather map for name-your-city, USA. Segments can be tweaked by the providers if needed, but also automatically pulls visual scenes relevant to the location for what’s happening weather-wise outside. It also uses AI to generate voiceovers so that users hear a friendly voice, which Bachstein said could be that of a popular local meteorologist or another voice to narrate the broadcast.
Part of the aim is to create efficiencies by consolidating the tech stack and help manage location-specific weather segments across various stations, channels or platforms. It can also create accurate and automated weather content for smaller markets that might not have a meteorologist.
Aside from automating workflows and weathercasts with ReelSphere, one of the initial use cases The Weather Co. saw for enterprise customers in streaming is the ability to fill slate – aka unfilled ad time that often equates to a blank or ‘be right back’ screen – on ad-supported streaming channels with automated and localized weather segment. With various forms of entertainment all vying for consumer attention, serving up a blank screen isn’t ideal for maintaining engagement and driving longer tune-in. But having a local or tailored weather segment might help users stay on the channel longer, instead of tuning or switching off a network when slate appears.
And as the company spoke with clients another need and use case emerged, which is the monetization piece. It drove the company create an ads product for ReelSphere, which is launching with general availability at the end of April, Bachstein told StreamTV Insider.
Weather volatility isn’t scaring off advertisers
According to Bachstein, weather has always been important to TV networks and broadcasters because it’s a revenue generator and advertisers like to align with it.
The shift to streaming hasn’t changed that and the company, like its clients, needs to “fish where the fish are.”
And the growing use of CTV, social and other digital platforms – while changing the distribution mode - also hasn’t changed the need for media to provide updated and accurate weather information, according to the enterprise leader, who suggested the onslaught of more extreme and volatile weather conditions in turn ups the importance for consumers in terms of engaging with weather content.
“Everyone still needs weather, they need their weather data, they need to understand what’s happening, - I would say, more now than ever because the volatility of weather is changing so much,” Bachstein said, noting four states were experiencing flooding just that day. “Some of the weather scenarios are getting so much more severe and catastrophic that it’s really really important that all media networks are able to provide that hyper local weather.”
But with devastation that can come with severe weather, is it still considered brand safe and are advertisers as keen to align with this type of content?
While the executive acknowledged some advertisers definitely stay away from certain severe weather, she pointed out that for other advertisers it’s more of a natural fit or important to be aligned – such as insurance companies and home builders, for example.
“There are advertisers whose products and services are more endemic to helping people through these severe moments, where it makes a lot of sense for them to be tied to that,” Bachstein commented.
Weather has many extensions, adjacencies
Beyond severe weather, Bachstein sees more potential to monetize because weather isn’t just wildfires or tornadoes but “has a lot of extensions.”
For example, weather can be tied to and impact things like health symptoms and daily activities. It’s where The Weather Company can deliver data-driven and visual weather segments that are more personalized and open the door for brand alignment.
If you think people aren’t paying attention to weather for their health, consider this.
Bachstein described a bit of a “wow” moment when The Weather Channel did research and found 75% of customers that use its app come to manage a health symptom. And there are plenty of weather-related health symptom extensions she cited, like weather triggers for arthritis, dry eye, cold fronts impacting migraines or temperature impacts on insulin reduction for those with diabetes and so on.
It’s where the ad product for ReelSphere comes in. Instead of just running a weather segment in place of slate to elongate tune-in and maintain engagement, streamers can use the spot to deliver both specified forecast information and generate revenue by allowing advertisers to be connected to a piece of weather.
For example, in a 30-second spot on a streaming channel, the first 15 seconds could be dedicated to a specialized “allergy forecast” for the day, while the remaining 15 seconds creates a natural placement for an over-the-counter or pharmaceutical allergy brand to align and advertise – giving broadcasters or streamers both automated weather content as well as chance to monetize in a more meaningful way.
“You’re giving the consumer some really useful information…and then you’re bringing in an advertiser who could be endemic to that information,” Bachstein explained.
There’s also no denying the importance of weather on people’s daily activities, where she used examples like “perfect day to go for a run,” “way too windy to go parasailing,” or “the fish are biting” as weather forecast content segments that she easily envisions brands wanting to align with sports or activities.
“When you start thinking about the adjacencies that weather offers you can see…there’s a lot that [brands] can align to,” she noted.
Another consideration for extensions, and perhaps a bit less obvious is the impact of weather on people’s mood and behaviors. Bachstein said the company has done a lot of research creating and gleaning advertising triggers based on weather data, like the understanding people want to buy ice cream in certain conditions. And it’s not always as intuitive, as she shared research found people not only like to buy ice cream in the summer months but also like it during the cold of winter when “you kind of want to hunker down and you want comfort food.”
“There’s a lot of opportunities for streaming advertisers to monetize using ReelSphere but also just using weather data in general,” she noted.
ReelSphere forecasts can be delivered at the DMA level, while weather targeting and ad triggers are possible at the zip code level. She also noted advertisers can leverage weather content to target by geo, contextual, or basic demos that streaming providers already have data on.
The company has some streaming customers lined up with proofs of concept and testing, she said, although no named clients for the ReelSphere ads product yet. As for The Weather Co’s own monetization, Bachstein said there are a few flavors of business model. It has a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, but in the beginning in order to prove out the power of the product she said a revenue share is certainly a desired first step as it provides companies a risk-free way to start trying out the technology.
As for interest, the company is seeing it both from traditional broadcasters and streaming-first players.
“There is so much opportunity to create weather programming on streaming. This is just a really easy, automated way to do it for any streaming, either through the OS or through the streaming services themselves,” Bachstein said.
She also affirmed the company has talked to several TV OS and OEMs and will “see if this evolves” once the full offering is available in market.