Media, Advertisers See Online Sandy Surge

Sometimes it's not the size of the storm, it's where it hits. As Hurricane Sandy raged through one of the country's most densely populated regions, it created a surge in online traffic as people sought weather-related news and various forms of online entertainment.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the brisk online traffic was The Weather Channel, which began streaming its television feed live on YouTube and on its own website late Sunday night. On Monday, the channel's website had its biggest day ever, serving up 200 million page views as of 7 p.m. Eastern. "It's like our mini Super Bowl," said Curt Hecht, the chief global revenue officer for channel owner The Weather Co. "As a company, everybody really pulls together. There are three or four or five days when nobody's sleeping, when we need to be at our best." Free online access to the live feed of The Weather Channel is unusual but not unheard of. The channel is usually restricted to the televisions of pay TV subscribers, but exceptions are made in disaster situations. It is the first time the channel has partnered with YouTube on a live feed. With an increase in audience comes a surge in advertising revenue. Regular TV commercials were not played in the online Weather Channel stream, but insurer State Farm sponsored a banner ad that ran along the bottom of the screen over a weather map shown during commercial breaks.