Talk about a weather disturbance.
The online meteorological media business, which grossed $94 million in advertising revenue last year while reaching an audience of 82 million unique users in the U.S., according to comScore, is preparing for stormy weather, as a well-backed third player seeks to grab market share from the two current market leaders.
The turbulence began last week. That's when Weather Central LP — best known as a supplier of weather-related data to local TV stations and now majority-owned by Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild and his wife Lynn Forester de Rothschild, of the famous European banking family, formally launched a new online product, MyWeather.com.