Los Angeles  - TV network NBC has partnered with financial firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital to buy the Weather Channel, the companies said Monday.

The estimated 3.5 billion dollar sale includes the website weather. com and a unit that provides weather information to local television stations.

Landmark Communications, which owns the Weather Channel, put the property up for sale in January, hoping to net 5 billion dollars. But it lowered its price in the face of market conditions and when a sale auction attracted bids only from NBC Universal and Time Warner.

The Weather Channel is the third most distributed US cable channel, reaching 97 per cent of US homes with cable, while its website is accessed by nearly 40 million users per month.

NBC is part of the General Electric conglomerate.(dpa)