Clear Channel and SFX Entertainment form partnership to bring Beatport Top 20 Countdown to radio

Robert F.X. Sillerman sold his concert promotion company, SFX Entertainment, to Clear Channel Communications in 2000 for $3 billion. Now he's back with a new company under the same name, SFX Entertainment, Inc., and he's looking to profit from another deal with Clear Channel. The new SFX specializes in EDM and everything that goes with it, and Sillerman hopes that he can prove its profitability by working with the biggest radio broadcaster in the United States.

"It always stunned me that there wasn't a closer relationship between radio and live entertainment. I believed there was great connection between them," Sillerman told the Wall Street Journal during an interview.

It won't be worth ten-figures, but the deal will bring a number of original programs to the broadcaster. One such project will be a talent contest for DJ's, which is expected to begin airing in Fall 2014. Another will be a weekly countdown based on the Beatport Top 20. Beatport is a popular electronic music news site that was acquired by SFX during 2013.

Clear Channel has been looking to increase its activity in the EDM market, and has launched several channels focusing on the genre in major markets such as Chicago and Miami.

The broadcaster will most likely reap the benefits of getting promotional use out of the many festivals that SFX now controls. Sillerman's company now runs the TomorrowWorld and Mysteryland franchises, which it recently imported into the United States from Europe. Clear Channel is still best known for its pop music affiliations, but it brought big names such as Calvin Harris and Skrillex to play its iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas.