• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 31, 2012

Fresh-faced entertainment host and media personality Ryan Seacrest is about to become even more ubiquitous, thanks to a big new investment agreement with Clear Channel funded by Clear Channel’s majority investors, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital.

Under the terms of the deal, Clear Channel’s owners will spend $300 million to work with Ryan Seacrest Media, an investment holding company, to acquire and develop media companies, content and properties with an eye to expanding RSM and Clear Channel’s joint entertainment offerings. 

Separately, Clear Channel is also acquiring a minority stake in Seacrest’s production company, Ryan Seacrest Productions, which has produced “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” as well as spinoffs like “Kourtney and Kim Take New York,” along with other popular reality programming like ABC’s “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.”

RSP will continue to operate as an independent, autonomous business, producing content for network and studio partners, but will now collaborate with Clear Channel on the production and distribution of scripted and unscripted TV programming.

(RSP is currently producing two new reality series -- “Melissa and Tye: A New Reality,” for CMT and “Shahs of Sunset,” for Bravo.) 

These deals significantly expand the existing relationship between Seacrest and Clear Channel.

Seacrest is currently the host and executive producer of “On Air With Ryan Seacrest,” a morning drive-time show on Clear Channel Radio’s KIIS 102.7 FM in Los Angeles, which is syndicated to more than 150 stations in North America. He also hosts “American Top 40,” a weekly countdown show syndicated by Clear Channel's Premiere Networks. Seacrest also helped develop and then hosted the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas in September 2011.

The Seacrest partnership is just the latest in a series of strategic moves toward a multiplatform digital strategy following the appointment of Bob Pittman as CEO of parent company CC Media Holdings. These include the creation of new national programming platforms and brand management teams at Clear Channel Radio, which are expected to exert more centralized control over formats and content, and the subsequent re-branding of Clear Channel Radio as Clear Channel Entertainment and Media.

Close on the heels of that change, music industry veteran John Sykes was named president of the newly created Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises. In this role, Sykes will be responsible for leading Clear Channel's push into TV and live events, as part of its ongoing effort to expand beyond broadcast radio and transform itself into a multiplatform digital content company.