The Weather Channel Continues as Leading Authority During Severe Weather

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) September 10, 2008 -- For the second weekend in a row, hurricane coverage on The Weather Channel reached more viewers than the cable news competition. The Weather Channel reached 57 million unduplicated viewers during the three-day coverage of Hurricane Hanna, Sept. 5 - Sept. 7*, achieving the highest Total Day (6am-6am) cume of any news network, according to Nielsen research**.

Cume for the same period for other news networks were: 48 mil for CNN, 42 mil for Fox News and 37 mil for HLN. The Weather Channel also beat the news competition within the 25-54 demo (3am-3am) on Sat, 9/6, with a 0.34 rating on the day of landfall. Ratings in the same period for other networks were: a 0.29 for Fox News and a 0.28 for CNN.

The Weather Channel also continued to serve online users during Hurricane Hanna as users turned to weather.com for the latest on the storm. During the weekend the site had 70% higher page views than an average weekend and video views were 11 times higher than an average weekend.

"These ratings demonstrate that when faced with the threat of severe weather, viewers trust The Weather Channel because we have the most experienced team in the field and in the studio, all focused on keeping people informed and safe.," said Ray Ban, executive vice president, programming and meteorology, The Weather Channel.

The Weather Channel achieved a 0.6 Total Day* (6 a.m-6 a.m.) HH rating representing over 611,000 homes as Hurricane Hanna threatened residents of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard over the weekend (9/5 - 9/7/08). The top quarter hour for The Weather Channel occurred on Sat. 9/6 at 10:00AM with a 1.5 peak household rating, delivering an average 1.4 million homes.

*9/7/08 data available through 3am only

**Source: Nielsen Media Research/NPower. Live, 6a6a Time Period Reach, 9/5-9/7/08, P2+, 1 min qualifier.

About The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel, a 24-hour weather network, is seen in more than 98 million U.S. households. The Weather Channel reaches more than 38 million unique users online per month through weather.com and products including The Weather Channel Desktop, making it the most popular source of online weather, news and information according to Nielsen//Net Ratings. The Weather Channel also operates The Weather Channel HD; Weatherscan, a 24-hour, all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; The Weather Channel Newspaper Services; and is the leading weather information provider for emerging technologies. This includes broadband and interactive television applications and wireless weather products including the most popular content site on the Mobile Web. The Weather Channel is owned by Landmark Communications, Inc., a Norfolk, VA-based, privately held media company. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press.

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