The Weather Channel App
The Weather Channel App is a mobile weather application providing forecasts, radar, alerts, and weather news. It is owned by The Weather Company, which IBM sold to private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2024; The Weather Channel television network that shares the brand has been owned separately by Allen Media Group since 2018.
Score generated by AI agents based on publicly cited evidence and reviewed by the project maintainer. Not independently validated. Last assessed 2026-10-01. Score revised 2026-10-01: 52 → 41.
Score History
Timeline events are AI-curated from public reporting. Score trajectory is derived from documented events.
NBCUniversal, Bain Capital and Blackstone bought The Weather Channel's TV and digital businesses from Landmark Communications for $3.5 billion, and the free Weather Channel smartphone app arrived under that ownership as a straightforward forecast-and-radar utility. Advertising was conventional, and nothing in the record shows location-data monetization or aggressive upselling. The July 2012 purchase of rival Weather Underground closed the period by consolidating two major consumer weather brands.
Weather.com reversed its content mix to 80% original viral articles, doubling non-forecast page views to 2.5 billion in 2013, and Bloomberg and The Washington Post criticised its clickbait headlines. The WEATHERfx platform turned weather and location data into an ad-targeting product, expanding to third-party sites in 2014. The app itself remained a free forecasting utility, but the business was being rebuilt around attention and ad targeting.
IBM closed its purchase of weather.com, the app, Weather Underground and the enterprise data business, folding them into Watson and IoT. From about mid-2017 the app shared users' precise location with at least a dozen third parties and the company analysed the data for hedge funds, while the consent prompt mentioned only personalized weather. Weather.com added anti-adblock walls, Weather Underground's free API keys were discontinued in 2018, and Samsung made Weather Company data its default.
A New York Times investigation exposed the app's location-data trade, followed in January 2019 by the Los Angeles City Attorney's lawsuit and in 2020 by the Hart class action. The LA case settled in August 2020 with revised consent disclosures, and Hart settled in 2023 after class certification was denied. Meanwhile the app launched an ad-free Premium subscription (about 2019; 860,000 subscribers by early 2021) and cross-brand bundles, and in August 2023 IBM agreed to sell the business to Francisco Partners.
Francisco Partners completed its $1.1 billion purchase, and the business became a standalone private-equity-owned company. Rohit Agarwal took over as CEO in November 2024, employees describe repeated layoffs, and the 2024 weather.com VPPA suit was dropped in March 2025. The app kept adding free features (allergy forecasts, RetroCast) while monetization layered on: Ad Free and Premium tiers, Premium Perks bundles, Steller travel-booking video and an August 2026 Kalshi prediction-market integration.
Alternatives
Ad-free weather app (free tier included) with detailed radar, wind maps, and precipitation layers powered by multiple forecast models. Easy switch: just download and use. Interface is more data-dense than The Weather Channel, which some find powerful and others find overwhelming.
Premium weather app with a clean interface and no ads. Lets users switch between data sources including AccuWeather, Apple Weather and Foreca. Easy switch, but most features require a paid Premium subscription (about $4.99/month or $19.99/year). The subscription cost is the main tradeoff versus The Weather Channel's free, ad-supported model.
Dimensional Breakdown
Summaries below were written by AI agents based on the cited evidence. They are editorial interpretations, not independent research findings.
Dimension History
Timeline (48 events)
NBC/Bain/Blackstone acquire Weather Channel for $3.5B
NBC Universal, Bain Capital, and Blackstone Group completed their $3.5 billion acquisition of The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications, marking the channel's first ownership change in 26 years. The deal brought private equity investors into the company's ownership structure for the first time, setting the stage for increased monetization pressure.
Weather Channel terminates last original on-camera meteorologist
In July 2010, The Weather Channel terminated Bill Keneely, the last of the original on-camera meteorologists who had appeared on the network's first broadcasts in 1982. The cut followed the November 2008-February 2009 layoffs of seven long-time on-camera meteorologists under the new NBC Universal/Bain/Blackstone ownership.
Weather Channel Companies acquires Weather Underground
The Weather Channel Companies announced the acquisition of Weather Underground, a popular community-driven weather service with a devoted user base of weather enthusiasts and personal weather station operators. The company was renamed 'The Weather Company' shortly after, consolidating two major consumer weather brands under one owner.
Weather.com shifts to viral clickbait content strategy
Weather.com reversed its content ratio from 80% wire copy / 20% original to 80% original / 20% wire, hiring over 40 journalists from outlets like The Daily Beast and Huffington Post. Non-forecasting content page views more than doubled from 1.2 billion to 2.5 billion in 2013. The site featured clickbait headlines like 'One TERRIFYING Photobomb' and content with tenuous weather connections, such as 'Forgotten Cleveland: Eerie Photos of Abandoned Buildings.'
WeatherFX advertising platform launched
The Weather Channel's global media arm partnered with Starcom MediaVest Group to launch its WeatherFX weather-intelligent marketing platform across Europe, building on WeatherFX's US launch. WeatherFX combines real-time geo-targeted weather data, client goals and historical business data so marketers can trigger ads when weather conditions are likely to influence consumer behaviour, turning The Weather Channel's data into an advertising-targeting product.
DirecTV drops Weather Channel in carriage dispute
DirecTV removed The Weather Channel from its roughly 20 million subscriber households in mid-January 2014 after the two sides failed to agree on carriage fees; DirecTV cited dissatisfaction with the channel's taped reality programming. The blackout lasted nearly three months. In the April 2014 deal, The Weather Channel 'agreed to reduce reality programming by half on weekdays,' and Weather Company CEO David Kenny apologized to DirecTV customers 'for the disruption of our service and for initiating a public campaign.'
WeatherFX expands off-property to third-party platforms
The Weather Company extended its WEATHERfx weather-triggered advertising platform beyond its own properties, enabling advertisers to target users on third-party publisher sites based on weather conditions and location data. This expanded the company's data monetization reach significantly beyond weather.com and the Weather Channel app.
Bloomberg exposes 'Less Weather, More Clickbait' strategy
Bloomberg Businessweek published 'The Weather Channel's Secret: Less Weather, More Clickbait' (subtitled 'How the Weather Channel became a tabloid marketing machine'), documenting how weather.com's editorial operation had shifted from forecasting to viral lifestyle content. The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang followed on October 30, 2014 with 'No shame: Weather.com fails to dial back clickbait hype.'
Weather Channel criticized for reality TV over weather coverage
Techdirt reported that The Weather Channel, criticized for airing fluff and reality programming (which had cost it carriage on DirecTV and then Verizon FiOS), launched ads and a CEO letter mocking AccuWeather for showing hippos during an Oklahoma tornado outbreak. AccuWeather's CEO replied that very little of TWC's 168 weekly hours was devoted to real weather.
IBM announces Weather Company acquisition for Watson IoT
IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire The Weather Company's B2B, mobile and cloud-based web properties (WSI, weather.com, Weather Underground and The Weather Company brand) as the foundation of its new Watson IoT unit, noting the data platform handled 26 billion requests a day. The Weather Channel TV network was excluded and would license IBM's forecast data. The deal signalled weather data's shift into an enterprise data and analytics product.
IBM closes Weather Company digital asset purchase (reported ~$2B)
IBM completed its acquisition of The Weather Company's digital assets including weather.com, the Weather Channel app, Weather Underground and the WSI enterprise business, whose cloud platform handled 26 billion inquiries a day. IBM did not disclose the price (originally reported at about $2 billion) and folded the platform into its Watson and IoT business. The TV network was excluded and remained with the NBCUniversal/Bain/Blackstone consortium.
Weather Company integrates Watson AI into programmatic advertising
Weather Company programmatic chief Jeremy Hlavacek said the company was 'at the beginning' of integrating IBM Watson into its programmatic ad business, looking hard at location and weather data. Its first product, Watson Ads (interactive banner ads that answer user questions), had been piloted with Unilever, Campbell and GSK through direct sales, with programmatic availability planned for the following year.
Weather Company extends WEATHERfx targeting to The Trade Desk and Vistar Media
The Weather Company, an IBM business, expanded off-property access to its automated WEATHERfx ad-targeting platform beyond The Weather Channel and Weather Underground properties, partnering with The Trade Desk and programmatic out-of-home provider Vistar Media so marketers could use weather-based triggers across programmatic display and digital out-of-home campaigns.
Weather Company becomes default data provider on Samsung Galaxy S8
The Weather Company expanded its strategic alliance with Samsung to become the default weather data provider on Samsung's flagship Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices, powering the native Samsung Weather widget and app. This partnership gave The Weather Channel preferential distribution across Samsung's massive Android install base, creating default-bias lock-in for hundreds of millions of devices.
Weather Channel app shares users' location data with at least a dozen third parties
According to the Los Angeles City Attorney's January 2019 complaint, over the preceding 19 months (from roughly mid-2017) the Weather Channel app transmitted users' geolocation data to at least a dozen third-party websites, and TWC and its affiliates built an 'audience-derived location targeting platform' called JOURNEYfx to monetize it. The app's consent prompt said location would be used for 'personalized local weather data, alerts and forecasts' and did not mention these commercial uses. The practices were exposed by the December 2018 NYT investigation and the 2019 LA lawsuit.
Weather.com anti-adblock walls begin appearing
Users reported on uBlock Origin's GitHub tracker that weather.com displayed an anti-adblock message when visited with an ad blocker, and that the modal's div name was randomized so a simple cosmetic filter could not remove it.
Byron Allen acquires Weather Channel TV network for $300M
Entertainment Studios, owned by comedian and media entrepreneur Byron Allen, acquired The Weather Channel's television network from the NBCUniversal/Bain/Blackstone partnership for approximately $300 million. This completed the split between the TV network (Allen Media Group) and the digital properties (IBM), creating a fragmented governance structure for the Weather Channel brand.
Weather Underground free API keys discontinued
The Weather Company announced that Weather Underground would no longer provide free API keys, effective immediately. All Weather Underground API keys stopped working by February 15, 2019. Thousands of developers, smart home integrations, and hobbyist projects that relied on the free API were forced to migrate to paid Weather Company enterprise APIs or seek alternatives.
NYT investigation names Weather Channel app in location-data trade
A New York Times investigation found that at least 75 companies receive precise location data from apps, several claiming to track up to 200 million US devices, with one sampled dataset updated more than 14,000 times a day. It named the IBM-owned Weather Channel app, whose prompt told users that sharing location would get them personalized local weather reports, while the company had also analyzed the data for hedge funds in a pilot program that IBM said had ended.
LA City Attorney sues over deceptive location data collection
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer sued TWC Product and Technology (an IBM subsidiary), alleging the Weather Channel app mined data from its 45 million users, tracked their 'second-by-second movements' even when the app was not in use, and shared the data with at least a dozen third parties for advertising and other commercial purposes. The consent prompt said location would be used for 'personalized local weather data, alerts and forecasts' while the commercial uses were disclosed only in the app's privacy policy and settings, which most users never read.
Vice warns users to stop using third-party weather apps
Motherboard (Vice) urged readers to stop using third-party weather apps, citing AccuWeather's 2017 location-data scandal, the New York Times finding that WeatherBug and the Weather Channel app sent precise location data to third parties, and the Los Angeles lawsuit against The Weather Channel filed the day before.
Samsung Galaxy Note10 integrates Weather Channel data with enhanced features
Samsung expanded its partnership with The Weather Company to provide upgraded weather data on the Galaxy Note10, including government-issued alerts, radar maps, and Weather Channel editorial video clips. The deep integration into Samsung's native weather experience across flagship devices cemented The Weather Company's position as the default weather provider on Samsung's massive Android install base, creating distribution advantages over competitors.
Federal class action filed over geolocation data tracking
A proposed class action (filed June 11, 2020, N.D. Cal.) alleged The Weather Channel app tracked users' precise locations 'at all times, day and night, 365 days a year' and profited from the data without users' knowledge. The complaint cited TWC's own admission that its primary revenue source comes from collecting and profiting from user location data, describing the company as 'a location data company powered by the weather.'
IBM settles LA location data lawsuit
IBM and the LA City Attorney's office settled the privacy lawsuit. The Weather Company agreed to revise its opt-in consent notice to include additional disclosures about how location data would be used. IBM separately donated approximately $1 million in equipment to LA for COVID-19 contact tracing. The settlement represented the first legal consequence for the company's deceptive location data practices.
Judge lets Weather Channel location-tracking class action proceed
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar refused to dismiss core claims in Hart v. TWC Product and Technology, the June 2020 class action alleging the app tracked users' precise locations even when closed and profited from the data. Tigar found Hart plausibly alleged a reasonable expectation of privacy and unjust enrichment, saying a privacy policy alone did not defeat the claims; the complaint cited the JOURNEYfx location-marketing platform built on 87 million monthly app users. The company called the allegations meritless.
Premium app reaches 860,000 subscribers as Weather Company leans into subscriptions
AdExchanger reported that about 18 months earlier the Weather Channel app had launched an ad-free premium product with in-depth maps, hourly forecasts and advanced radar, which had since reached 860,000 paid subscribers, with severe weather driving 20-30% jumps in sign-ups. The company said it was promoting the upgrade through in-app ad placements and building AI propensity models to target users likely to subscribe.
Weather Channel TV network launches $2.99/month livestream subscription
The Weather Channel television network, owned by Allen Media Group, launched its first direct-to-consumer subscription: a $2.99/month livestream of the network plus on-demand content through its connected-TV app. Separately, the digital Weather Channel already sold a premium web/app subscription at $4.99/month or $29.99/year offering an ad-free experience and extra features.
Weather Channel partners with Amobee and OpenAP for data-driven TV ads
The Weather Channel TV network (Allen Media Group's Weather Group) licensed Amobee's platform to sell data-driven linear TV campaigns using advanced audiences activated through OpenAP, letting advertisers target The Weather Channel's TV audience segments with first- or third-party data.
Premium subscription bundles launched with Tripadvisor and USA Today
IBM's Weather Channel announced premium subscription bundles pairing Weather Channel Premium Pro with Tripadvisor Plus ($89.99/year) and USA Today ($79.99/year), expanding the monetization strategy beyond weather into cross-brand subscription packages designed to extract additional recurring revenue from the user base.
Second privacy class action settled in three years
The Weather Channel settled a proposed class action (Hart v. TWC, filed 2020) alleging it violated privacy laws by selling geolocation data collected from its mobile app users, its second privacy settlement in three years. Plaintiffs alleged the app tracked locations 'day and night, 365 days a year' and sold data to third-party advertising agencies; the judge had denied class certification shortly before the parties reported a settlement in principle.
Class action accuses weather.com of wiretapping and sharing viewing data
Maryland resident Lisa Addi filed a class action against IBM in federal court in White Plains alleging weather.com used Oracle's BlueKai tracking and disclosed users' names, emails, precise geolocation and the titles of videos they watched to mParticle and AppNexus/Xandr, violating the Video Privacy Protection Act and Maryland's wiretap law. It was the app business's third privacy class action in four years.
IBM sells Weather Company to Francisco Partners
IBM announced the sale of The Weather Company, including the Weather Channel app and websites, weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar, plus its forecasting platform and enterprise data services, to private equity firm Francisco Partners for an undisclosed sum (April reports put the value at more than $1 billion, versus the roughly $2 billion IBM reportedly paid in 2016). IBM kept access to the weather data for the AI models it sells to enterprise clients.
Francisco Partners completes Weather Company acquisition
Francisco Partners completed its acquisition of The Weather Company from IBM. The company began operating as a standalone business under existing CEO Sheri Bachstein, serving an average of more than 360 million people a month through The Weather Channel app, weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar. IBM's annual report later put the price at $1.1 billion, including $250 million of contingent consideration, with $750 million in cash at closing.
Weather Channel app redesign deepens personalization and data collection
The Weather Channel unveiled a redesigned app with AI-derived weather explainers, well-being sections tailored to health conditions such as allergies, breathing, skin health and cold & flu, an air-quality forecast and 'Breathing Index', and a 15-day forecast view, part of a push to make the app more personalized.
Allen Media Group begins broad restructuring and layoffs
Allen Media Group, owner of The Weather Channel TV network, began layoffs affecting about 300 employees, roughly 12% of its 2,500-person workforce (per the New York Post), with 'expense and workforce reductions across all divisions.' Veteran meteorologist Mike Seidel, at TWC since 1992, was among more than a dozen cut at the network.
Court dismisses wiretap claim against weather.com; suit later dropped
In Addi v. IBM, Judge Nelson Román granted IBM's motion to dismiss the Maryland wiretap and unjust-enrichment claims and deferred the VPPA claim pending a Second Circuit ruling, then stayed the case in July 2024. The plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal at the end of July 2024, ending the case without any finding against the company.
IBM sued under VPPA for Weather Channel video data sharing
IBM was sued again alleging that The Weather Channel website shared users' personal information -- including location data and video viewing history -- with third-party ad partners mParticle and AppNexus/Xandr without consent, violating the Video Privacy Protection Act. The complaint noted that location data could be used to track consumers to 'sensitive locations, including places of religious worship' and 'reproductive health clinics.'
Weather Company changes leadership under PE ownership
The Weather Company announced leadership changes under Francisco Partners ownership. Rohit Agarwal, formerly Chief Product and Revenue Officer at SoundCloud and Chief Product Officer at CNN, was appointed CEO. Sheri Bachstein moved from CEO to President, leading the Enterprise business including advertising, aviation, media, and government & defense.
Allen Media plans to replace 50+ local meteorologists with TWC feeds
Allen Media Group announced a new local weather format in which Weather Channel meteorologists in Atlanta produce forecasts for its local TV stations. Local meteorologists were eliminated or reassigned and replaced by a Weather Channel feed; CNN reported at least 50 meteorologists at roughly two dozen stations from Massachusetts to Hawaii were affected.
Allen Media pauses plan to replace local meteorologists after backlash
Days after announcing it would centralize local forecasts at The Weather Channel TV network's Atlanta studios, Allen Media Group told several stations (including WAAY, WTVA, KWWL, WSIL, KEZI and KDRV) it was pausing the layoffs of local meteorologists after significant feedback and advertiser pressure. This concerns the separately owned TV network, which licenses the brand and data from The Weather Company; the app's owner was not involved.
Plaintiff drops VPPA suit against IBM and Francisco Partners
The plaintiff in the November 2024 weather.com Video Privacy Protection Act suit (originally Penning, refiled with plaintiff John Castillo and adding Francisco Partners as a defendant) filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice against both defendants in the Southern District of New York, ending the case before any ruling on the merits.
Weather Company expands AI-driven advertising to programmatic curation
The Weather Company announced expanded partnerships with Index Exchange and Microsoft Curate, alongside existing relationships with Magnite and Audigent, enabling brands to scale AI-driven weather-triggered advertising signals across programmatic channels. The expansion deepened the algorithmic opacity of content and ad delivery as machine learning systems determined ad targeting using weather, location, and behavioral data without user visibility.
Weather Channel relaunches Storm Radar with AI assistant and adds free RetroCast
The Weather Company relaunched its separate Storm Radar app with next-generation radar and a generative-AI Weather Assistant, priced at $19.99/year or $3.99/month on iOS. At the same time it launched a free 'retro' RetroCast at weather.com/retro recreating the network's classic 'Local on the 8s' forecasts, later added as an in-app toggle.
Weather Company hires ex-Spotify ad chief as revenue officer
The Weather Company appointed Brian Benedik, former chief revenue officer at Audacy and Niantic and Spotify's global head of advertising, to lead premium ad sales, programmatic, partnerships and marketing for The Weather Channel app, weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar. The announcement said he would modernize the ad tech stack and support commercialization of new consumer membership products.
Steller travel-booking video added to weather.com city pages
The Weather Company and Steller launched a contextual travel advertising product that inserts creator-led destination videos into weather.com city pages when users check out-of-town forecasts, with a direct path to booking experiences and hotels. It is sold to travel brands and destination marketers as a way to reach users at the first moment of travel intent.
Premium Perks bundles partner deals into annual subscription
The Weather Channel introduced Premium Perks for annual Premium subscribers ($29.99/year), including up to four months of Spotify Premium, Outside+ and travel discounts, valued by the company at up to $187. Perks require a registered weather.com account with an email address and start only after the free trial converts to a paid subscription.
Free allergy experience adds neighborhood-level pollen forecasts
The Weather Channel app launched an enhanced allergy experience in its free version, with hyperlocal pollen forecasts on a 5 km grid (powered by Ambee), peak-pollen tracking, historical pollen data and 'Weather Aggravator Insights' explaining how wind and humidity affect allergens.
Kalshi prediction-market odds come to the Weather Channel app
The Weather Company and prediction market Kalshi announced a partnership under which Kalshi uses Weather Company data to settle weather markets and The Weather Company incorporates Kalshi's real-time probability data into select experiences in The Weather Channel app and weather.com. Kalshi said its climate and weather markets were pacing toward $1.1 billion in annualized volume, and the two firms plan to explore new markets.
Evidence (47 citations)
D1: User Value Erosion
D2: Business Customer Exploitation
D3: Shareholder Extraction
D4: Lock-in & Switching Costs
D5: Twiddling & Algorithmic Opacity
D6: Dark Patterns
D7: Advertising & Monetization Pressure
D8: Competitive Conduct
D9: Labor & Governance
D10: Regulatory & Legal Posture
Scoring Log (8 entries)
Checked 83 items + prose. 39 verified, 26 corrected (6 date-only), 16 re-sourced, 2 removed. Invented: '$750M annual revenue' (IBM 2024 annual report: $750M was cash paid at closing); nGrow.ai 30%/50% notification figures (junk vendor blog only); 'minute-by-minute' tracking (complaint: 'minute details', 'second-by-second'); Vice 'continued sharing as of 2023/2024' (article is Jan 2019); Weather Underground 'acquired by IBM in 2012' (bought by The Weather Channel Companies); premium subscription 'launched 2022' (AdExchanger: ~2019); premium '$39.99/year' (Subscription Insider/IBM: $29.99). Fixed parentCompany (Allen Media Group owns only the TV network).
52->41. Since Feb 2026 (window Oct 2025-Oct 2026): no new litigation or regulator action; free features added (Storm Radar relaunch, RetroCast, allergy forecasts); monetization layered on (CRO hire, Premium Perks, Steller travel video, Aug 2026 Kalshi odds in app); employee reports of continued layoffs; Nov 2024 VPPA suit voluntarily dismissed Mar 2025. D1 7->5 (correction: fact audit found 'free features moved to paywall' unsupported; 4.8/6.1M App Store rating and new free features fit 4-5), D2 5->4 (recalibration: extraction centred on 2018-19 WU API cut, no current business-customer harm), D3 5->4 (recalibration: no dividend recap/debt evidence; product investment continues), D4 3->2 (recalibration: commodity data, easy exit), D5 5->4 (recalibration), D6 6->4 (recalibration: deceptive location prompt was 2017-19 and remedied by 2020 settlement; current = nagging/upsells), D7 8->7 (recalibration: ads heavy but payers ad-free and core forecast free), D10 6->4 (event: both VPPA suits dropped 2024/2025 with no liability; recalibration of litigation-only record). D9 unchanged but now based on TWCo's own Glassdoor layoff reports; Allen Media TV-network layoffs treated as a separate employer. Eras: 'Utility Weather App' re-dated 2008-01-01->2008-09-12 (NBC/Bain/Blackstone acquisition) and relabeled 'Early App Utility'; 'Clickbait Content Pivot' kept; 'IBM Data Monetization' re-dated 2016-02-01->2016-01-29 (IBM close); 'Privacy Lawsuits Era' re-dated 2019-01-01->2018-12-10 (NYT investigation) and relabeled 'Location Data Reckoning'; 'PE Ownership Era' (2024-02-01) and 'Severe Enshittification' (assessment-dated 2026-02-11) merged into 'Francisco Partners Era' from 2024-02-01. App vs TV network: scored The Weather Company's app/web; TV-network conduct (DirecTV dispute, Allen Media layoffs, livestream sub, Amobee TV ads) given no weight except as context.
Removed typed-in site scores from alternatives text (they go stale on re-score; the page shows live scores). No other changes.
No material changes since 2026-02-11. Checked product news, lawsuits/regulatory actions, pricing, ownership, layoffs, and privacy developments through Jul 2026. Rohit Agarwal CEO transition (effective Apr 2026) already reflected in D9 summary; Premium still $29.99/yr; new Storm Radar app and retro weather.com are feature additions, not degradation; Allen Media's Gray Media station sale affects the TV side only; no new privacy litigation or regulatory action found. Ad-load complaints continue existing trend already scored (D7=8).
Added 2 missing dimension narratives