Met Office Media, the commercial media arm of the government-owned UK organisation, has invested a six figure sum in the targeting of new channels, and sees mobile as a priority.

At present, the Met Office’s mobile activity consists of streamed bulletins on ITN’s MobiTV services.

However, the unit believes its systems can go further – creating bespoke mobile forecasts around specific regional events such as Wimbledon or Glastonbury.

The Met Office says its existing broadcasting partners – including BBC, ITV and C4 – make substantial revenue from weather sponsorship. It believes mobile portal owners could do the same.

Certainly weather is anecdotally one of the primary reasons for people to check sites. Its value is reflected in NBC Universal’s $3.5 billion purchase of the Weather Channel last month.

Paul Mills, head of Met Office Media, told ME: “People are increasingly checking the weather via mobile, especially with the growth in 3G and the mobile internet. We see tremendous opportunities in the medium for us and our future commercial partners.”