Clear Channel to break into TV with Seacrest

DANA POINT, California (AP) — Radio broadcasting giant Clear Channel is breaking into the TV production business.

The company announced Tuesday that it is taking a minority stake in the production company of "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest.

Ryan Seacrest Media produces "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" and other spin-offs involving the celebrity family. Its other shows include "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution."

In a separate deal, Clear Channel's majority investors, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, are committing $300 million combined to work with Seacrest's company to identify, acquire and develop innovative media companies.

At an All Things D conference Tuesday, Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman said the new venture will aim to break into the TV production market and use Clear Channel's massive radio network to help promote the shows.

He said the same formula helped launch the Fox network in the late 1980s.

"Their secret weapon was they used radio to promote their new shows," Pittman said. "So today, why can't we use our own advertising for Ryan's shows and give them a lift?"

Seacrest will remain majority owner of his company, which will keep producing shows for network and studio partners such as Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal.

"We aim to build Ryan Seacrest Media into a leading multimedia company with diversified assets and interests," Seacrest said in a statement. "The entertainment industry is thriving with innovation more than ever before."

The announcement is the latest move by Clear Channel to spread its reach into forms of distribution beyond its more than 850 radio stations and network of outdoor billboards.

Last year, Clear Channel Radio, a subsidiary of CC Media Holdings Inc., launched the online radio service iHeart Radio to compete with market leader Pandora Media Inc. In mid-January, Clear Channel Radio changed its corporate name to Clear Channel Media and Entertainment.

Pittman has said the company aims to reach audiences in all formats and devices.

Since joining Clear Channel with a personal $5 million investment in November 2010, Pittman has tried to expand the company's reach beyond traditional radio. Pittman was named CEO of CC Media Holdings in October. Previously, he was CEO of MTV Networks and chief operating officer of what is now AOL Inc.,

The company was taken private in 2008 by Thomas H. Lee and Bain but has struggled under the debt load created by the acquisition. The company's long-term debt reached about nearly $20 billion at the end of September.

All Things D, a website owned by News Corp.'s The Wall Street Journal, hosts several conferences a year. The latest version, "D: Dive Into Media," focuses on the intersection between traditional media companies and technology.

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Dave Matthews takes break from road, not concerts (AP)

NEW YORK – Dave Matthews has just started a telephone interview when the shrieks of a child interrupt his thoughts and he has to go to another room to escape the commotion.

"It's not easy to find a quiet place in my house," quips the leader of the Dave Matthews Band. "There's a lot of action."

But it's that kind of action with his 3-year-old son and two 9-year-old daughters that Matthews was craving when he decided last year, after spending 20 years on the road, to take a hiatus from touring.

However, the 44-year-old rocker's love of music couldn't keep him away from the stage for long, and this summer, the band — which includes Carter Beauford, Boyd Tinsley and Stefan Lessard — is performing in four cities — three nights in each city — in a "caravan" of concerts.

The concerts in Atlantic City, N.J.; Chicago; New York; and George, Wash., features the Dave Matthews Band as headliners and includes acts like the Flaming Lips, Ray LaMontagne, the Roots and Dispatch. The acts will vary in each city.

"I hope that people will go away from it, probably a little exhausted, but feeling like they had a really special experience," Matthews said.

AP: When you ended your tour, people assumed that was it for a while. What made you decide to do the "caravan"?

Matthews: There's some different reasons. A lot of the guys wanted to play and I love playing with this band. I've just been wanting to take a break from being on the road. ... I'm not as up for the crazy tour schedule this year ... but I still love playing music. It does seem like a good way not to live on a bus and go to someplace and see some good musicians play, and then work a little bit.

AP: What have you been doing during your time off?

Matthews: I've just been with my family and nothing else. ... Last year I spent was away from my family a lot. It's hard for me to leave my kids, and it's harder on me than it is on them. It's funny, I get a little quieter with time. I don't want to chase my tail and one day repeat myself and repeat myself and one day have kids going to college and not have memories that I should, because I was too busy doing my thing. ... I'm always playing music and trying to make new sounds, but mainly, it's been trying to hear theirs.

AP: Do you think your break might be a little bit more extended, or do you not want to put a timetable on it?

Matthews: I'd like to get into writing again and I think a lot of it for me is just trying to figure out how I can do both, and a lot of people have done it. ... It's a hard switch, but I'm working on trying to figure out how to do it. I don't want to stop — I don't think I really can stop making music. ... I'm not planning going into the studio for a specific month or anything like that. But I imagine I am going to. I don't see an end to that.

AP: There's a new book, "So Much to Say: Dave Matthews Band — 20 Years on the Road." What are some of the things included in the book that might surprise people?

Matthews: You know what's going to make you laugh? My mother told me there was some book out about us, and that's the first I heard of it. ... I had no idea. I am so in the dark about everything, which is OK. I've always kind of been, I've never really kept up with the culture around me, so it's not surprising that some book came out and I was oblivious about it. ... I have yet to see it. ... I have a pretty good idea of what happened in the last 20 years, and there's a lot of books out there that are about other things that I would much rather read than read a book that has details of my life.

AP: You have talked about trying to do things that might better the world. What are some of the projects you'd like to tackle?

Matthews: I think it's always on my mind and all of our minds, especially when I became a father, about what kind of planet I'm leaving for my children, and so that preoccupies me a little bit, and then opportunities tend to come up because there are people that are more directly focused on more specific ways into improving or sustaining a healthier direction for the planet.

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Online:

http://www.davematthewsband.com

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