• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, March 13, 2008

The Weather Channel said Wednesday it will begin offering video ads on its mobile platform and sell the inventory in the coming upfront.

With the new video forecasts on its mobile Web presence, the company said it would begin rolling out novel advertising opportunities in the second quarter. There will be 15-second post-roll video ads, along with five-second billboards in the pre-roll spot and a banner ad. An advertiser can own a particular section, the network said.

The channel said its mobile locale has some 6.3 million unique users a month.

Also up for sale in the upfront is the opportunity to launch banner ads in a new, more prominent position on local forecast pages on Weather.com.

Paul Iaffaldano, executive vice president/general manager of TWC Media Solutions, said: "The debut of ad supported mobile Web video further enhances our reputation for matching the content interests of our users with the targeting needs of our advertisers."