Weather Channel Owner Sues Nielsen Over $475K Monthly Ratings Fee

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The Weather Channel's owner says Nielsen is engaging in "predatory pricing" because of its monopoly on ratings services.

CF Entertainment on Friday sued The Nielsen Company for breach of contract and unfair competition and unjust enrichment. CF, which is owned by Byron Allen's Media Group, claims it's being overcharged by more than $400,000 per month.

"Nielsen’s stranglehold on viewership data and the fact that it supplies the only currency accepted by advertisers gives it lopsided leverage when entering into ratings agreements with broadcasters such as CF Entertainment," writes attorney Sean Berkowitz in the complaint, which is posted in full below. "Nielsen knows that its ratings information is essential to a network’s ability to recover revenue from advertisers, because advertisers only pay based Nielsen’s upon proof of performance. If a network cannot provide proof of performance in the form of Nielsen ratings data, the network cannot earn and receive any revenue for its advertisements."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t...sues-nielsen-475k-monthly-ratings-fee-1290777


Byron Allen's group CF Entertainment sues Nielsen over pricing issues with viewership data.

 

[installLSC]

Does Byron Allen do anything but sue people these days?

 

[Don CT]

I thought IBM owned the Weather Channel.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

No, IBM kept The Weather Company (including the broadcast graphics business and the weather data collection that was part of Wunderground) and got rid of The Weather Channel about 2 years ago.

 

[Don CT]

No, IBM kept The Weather Company (including the broadcast graphics business and the weather data collection that was part of Wunderground) and got rid of The Weather Channel about 2 years ago.

The weather Channel app is still listed as an IBM Company, so there has to be some overlap.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Allen Media is leasing the name "The Weather Channel" from "The Weather Company". Weather.com is also owned by IBM, the website promoted on The Weather Channel is LocalNow.com

 

[Don CT]

Allen Media is leasing the name "The Weather Channel" from "The Weather Company". Weather.com is also owned by IBM, the website promoted on The Weather Channel is LocalNow.com

The current Weather Channel is a spin off company from when Bain sold the assets to IBM. The Weather Company was the founded company in 1981.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Does Byron Allen do anything but sue people these days?

Prior to this Byron Allen's group was in dispute with Comcast and that was originally heading to the Supreme Court prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter in place orders though.