Jared W. Smith

The Weather Channel’s days as a privately owned cable network are numbered. There’s a lot of wondering why they’re up for sale for as much $5 billion. They certainly have prime-time Web real estate (weather.com), but I think people underestimate their IntelliStar platform. The IntelliStar, the latest iteration of the computer which serves up that Local on the 8s you’ve come to know and love over the years, is secretly one of the better advertising platforms out there on cable. Check out this Broadcasting & Cable piece from 2004, when IntelliStar was introduced. In short, the computer can serve up commercials based on weather conditions you may be experiencing. Now, imagine this technology licensed out. It’s amazing they haven’t done that yet…and one almost wonders if they’ve missed the boat. Cable isn’t exactly what it used to be on an excitement scale as far as a media delivery platform.