The Weather Channel could be up for sale.
The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on Tuesday that Hunt Valley, Maryland-based telecom Sinclair Broadcast Group has expressed an interest in buying the weather-focused television network from an ownership group that includes private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone Group, as well as Comcast’s NBCUniversal. The Journal said the two sides have had sporadic talks that have recently gained intensity and that a deal could value the Weather Channel at roughly $100 million.
A spokesperson for the Weather Channel declined to comment on the reports of a potential deal. Sinclair Broadcasting did not immediately return a call from Fortune seeking comment.
The TV network’s owners bought The Weather Company from Landmark Communications in 2008 for around $3.5 billion before selling off the company’s digital assets for more than $2 billion to IBM last year. (The 2015 deal did not include the Weather Channel’s TV network, though IBM did retain rights to the name “Weather Channel.”) Fortune wrote at the time of last year’s deal that IBM was looking for full acces to The Weather Company’s reams of weather data.
As the Journal notes, a deal now valuing the Weather Channel’s TV network at only about $100 million, when combined with last year’s IBM deal, would represent a significant dip in value in the eight years since the original purchase from Landmark. While the network still has amazing reach, being available in roughly 90 million households across the U.S., the channel’s ratings have struggled as more people rely on the internet and their mobile devices for weather updates.
Meanwhile, Sinclair is the largest TV station operator in the country--it owns or operates roughly 170 television stations in 81 markets in the U.S.--and the company has recently expanded into cable programming, having paid $350 million to acquire the Tennis Channel in January from an ownership group consisting of multiple private equity firms, including Bain Capital’s venture capital arm.
