 The Weather Channel continues to license its brand assets and weather data from IBM., the Weather Channel was received by approximately 79.128 million households that subscribe to a pay television service throughout the United States.The Weather Channel was founded on July 18, 1980, by television meteorologist John Coleman (who, at the time of the channel's founding, had formerly served as a chief meteorologist at ABC owned-and-operated station WLS-TV in Chicago and as a forecaster for "Good Morning America") and Frank Batten, then-president of the channel's original owner Landmark Communications (now Landmark Media Enterprises).