Report: Comcast Looking To Sell The Weather Channel

The owners of the Weather Channel have hired the banks Morgan Stanley and PJT Partners Inc. to explore a sale, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg reports preliminary discussions have taken place with technology and media companies, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Blackstone Group LP, Bain Capital LLC and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal acquired the company for about $3.5 billion in 2008.

The Weather Co., which began weighing a sale last year, is considering selling only its digital business, which has a much higher value than the cable network, two of the people said. Separating the businesses would be difficult and would present a hurdle to a sale, one of the people said.

The businesses are valued by the owners at more than $3 billion today.

The Weather Co.’s digital businesses include The Weather Channel’s website, Weather.com, Weather Underground and Weather Services International.

Weather Channel, which is distributed to more than 100 million U.S. households, could be sold to another cable network operator, while the weather data could be acquired separately by a technology company.