The Weather Channel Bidding Moves to Second Round

Implications: Five companies are expected to bid in a second round for The Weather Channel, including both CBS and NBC.

Analysis: With the second round of bids due on May 8 from at least five different suitors, we now know that both CBS and NBC are two of the bidders.  The Weather Channel would make a nice complement to either operation if their bid is successful.

CBS probably has more to gain because NBC already has a strong presence with its NBC Weather Plus, regularly seen on its local owned and operated stations, the NBC Nightly News, MSNBC and CNBC.  But NBC could easily fold their operation in to the Weather Channel, which has the better brand.

CBS, on the other hand, could also use this gem to give them a strong weather presence on cable.  Let's remember that the real prize here is not so much the actual channel, but weather.com which ranks as one of the top 10 web sites visited by consumers.  Both CBS and NBC have a number of valuable web properties, so weather.com would be a great addition to either team.

Regardless, either a CBS deal or an NBC deal would pose lots of interesting strategic options for the winner.  What will be interesting is to see how high the bidders go given the current economic climate.