 The deal, which closed the following January, does not include the Weather Channel itself, which remained owned by the Bain/Blackstone/NBCUniversal consortium, and entered into a long-term licensing agreement with IBM for use of its weather data and "The Weather Channel" name and branding.In August 2016, reports surfaced that Sinclair Broadcast Group expressed interest in acquiring ownership of the Weather Channel.In the early morning hours of April 18, 2019, the Weather Channel was temporarily unable to air live programming due to what they called a "malicious software attack" on their network.