Ryan Seacrest is getting tighter with Clear Channel.
His investment holding company Ryan Seacrest Media has a deal — actually, two separate, related deals — with Clear Channel and the company’s big investors Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital.
“Funds sponsored by THL and Bain Capital have together committed up to $300 million to working with RSM to identify, acquire and develop innovative media companies, media content and other media properties that can be leveraged to support a range of media enterprises,” they stated.
Separately, Clear Channel gets a minority stake in Ryan Seacrest Productions, which is responsible for TV shows like “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.” The organizations emphasized that the production company will remain “creatively autonomous,” still majority-owned by Seacrest. But it will collaborate with Clear Channel on production and distribution of television programming and other content.
Seacrest and Clear Channel already work together through his morning show on KIIS(FM) in Los Angeles, which is syndicated to 150 affiliates, as well as the show “American Top 40” and other projects like the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
The top people involved in the new arrangement include Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman, Lee Partners Managing Director Richard Bressler and Bain Managing Director Ian Loring, along with Seacrest.
Among the goals for Clear Channel, Pittman said, is to expand in the television arena “in a way that can maximize our relationships with music and other talent.”
