History of The Weather Channel Network, and the "Forecast Earth"/environmental unit (however, certain portions of the "Forecast Earth" unit remain with TWC). The layoffs took effect on November 30 (The Weather Channel later stated it would air other environmental programs). With the shutdown of NBC Weather Plus that month as a result of NBC Universal's partial acquisition of The Weather Channel, certain meteorologists from the digital broadcast network were eventually integrated into TWC's on-camera weather staff; forecasting, radar and graphics systems used by other NBC Universal television news properties (including NBC News, CNBC and MSNBC) replaced the Weather Plus-branded banner graphics to fit The Weather
The Weather Channel planned to use Weather Underground's large network of digital forecasting and tracking websites to bolster its digital growth. Weather Underground operates separately from The Weather Channel and continues to provide its own forecasts, though its website incorporates some weather news and video content from TWC. The website weather.com and most of The Weather Channel's digital assets were sold to IBM in January 2016. Weather forecast programming made up TWC's entire schedule prior to its incorporation of weather-related original programming – referred in network promotional materials and press releases as "long-form programming" – in 2000 (with few breakaways from its forecast