• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 2, 2014

The weather this past winter slowed down many industries -- but not Domino’s. In fact, the big pizza chain witnessed an increase in business. Guessing that few wanted to venture outside in the rain, snow, and other bad weather conditions. (But what about the poor deliveryperson?)

What goes with pizza in bad weather? Maybe a little TV. Perhaps some binge viewing.

Thank goodness we don’t have to venture outdoor for a rental DVD anymore when such weather conditions arise. We can all stay home and digitally get all the entertainment we need -- as long as fiber cable lines aren’t down, or satellite TV delivery systems are still operating.

That said, TV viewership didn’t really change that much because of the harsh winter weather on the East Coast and Midwest.

Typically, when good weather and time changes arrive in the spring, TV analysts do see some lower viewership levels, in particular for early evening prime-time shows.

However, severe weather can affect all sorts of communication and media -- as with Hurricane Sandy a year and a half ago -- with many networks down for long periods of time.  Yet during that bad patch of weather overall TV viewership climbed, especially for cable TV news networks.

Maybe there’s a hint: If Domino’s business improved this year due to the bad weather, we can be assured those consumers needed to avoid boredom and limit increasing bouts of cabin fever. Rain and storms can’t wash out popular media/nutritional multitasking.