Apparently the bluster of political conventions and hurricanes don’t mix well.
The Weather Channel, which saw its audience swell to almost 2.3 million during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and 2.5 million during Tropical Storm Irene last year, this year is struggling to grab an audience less than half as large for Hurricane Isaac.
At least one analyst thinks interest in the Republican Convention is causing the shrinkage.
“Had [Isaac] happened a week earlier, ratings would have done better,” said David Scardino, programming analyst at Los Angeles ad shop RPA.
“The audience was prepped for something a little more dramatic, but the network had to compete with the convention; that reduced it a little bit.”
As can be expected, hurricanes are great for The Weather Channel.
Prior to Isaac, TWC was averaging 212,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. When Isaac blew in, the number jumped five-fold — to 1.1 million.
That’s a nice bump, to be sure, but having the broadcast networks and cable news channels cutting away to cover the storm ate into TWC’s audience.
Even so, TWC viewing was second only to Fox News in prime time on Tuesday, with 843,000 viewers in the key 25- -to-54 year-old demographic.
Fox News, like The Post, is owned by News Corp.
Ironically, viewers choosing the convention — where Bain Capital founder Mitt Romney was getting the Republican Party nod to run for the White House — hurt TWC, which is partially owned by Bain.
The future of TWC has been the source of much speculation in banking circles.
TWC’s ownership structure, numerous sources have suggested, is set for a shake-up.
Its private-equity backers, which include Blackstone in addition to Bain, along with Comcast-NBCUniversal, are coming up on five years of ownership — the usual mark for PE backers to start looking for the exits.
TWC was bought in 2008 for $3.3 billion by a group fronted by NBCUniversal, now part of Comcast. The company is run by former Yahoo! board member, David Kenny.
Banking sources ask if Comcast will stick around as a part owner when PE backers sell.
Comcast recently sold a minority stake in A&E Television Networks, leading to speculation it might shed other minority interests.
Comcast officials stress there are no plans for a sale.
TWC has 100.7 million subscribers, making it one of the more widely distributed networks around.
It nets 13 cents a month per household in affiliate fees in 2012, according to SNL Kagan, which estimated its net ad revenue at $179.7 million this year, up from $171.1 million in 2011.
Total operating revenue is $359.4 million.