Storm Brewing for Online Rivals; NBCweatherplus.com Goes Local to Challenge Weather.com.(TV Currents)

Byline: Daisy Whitney

NBC's year-old digital weather network Weather Plus will bring its shared national and local weather approach to the Internet today in an effort to take on Web weather incumbent Weather.com.

Weather Plus is currently in about 90 local TV markets representing 75 percent of the United States. The digital network reaches about 15 million cable homes and draws on the resources of Weather Plus meteorologists and local weathercasters in all of its markets.

The NBCweatherplus.com Web site is the next logical brand extension for the network, which is quickly becoming the de facto weather brand for NBC. MSNBC and many NBC local affiliates have recently rebranded their weather coverage with the "Weather Plus'' moniker, and during breaking weather news the youthful diginet is becoming the source for NBC News programs such as "Dateline,'' "Today'' and "NBC Nightly News.''

The NBCweatherplus.com rollout begins with the 14 NBC-owned …