Word is out about the new TV venture that Ryan Seacrest is working on with Creative Artists Agency and Anschutz Entertainment Group. According to AEG Chief Executive Tim Leiweke, the new channel will be tentatively named AXS, and will leverage video footage captured from AEG’s dozens of entertainment venues around the world, like the Staples Center in L.A.
AEG, however, has much more material to pull from: its Nokia Theater, in the middle of its $2.5 billion L.A. Live complex hosts a dozen red carpet events each year including the Grammys and MTV Video Awards. AEG concerts division is second only to Live Nation Entertainment, and underwrites tours for the likes of Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Cher and Jon Bon Jovi.
Though a CAA spokesperson denied to me this week that the venture was forthcoming, and despite no response from repeated attempts in recent weeks to confirm the news Seacrest Productions, AEG’s Leiweke seems sure that it will happen. “Ryan is a very creative business man,” says Leiweke, who explained in an exclusive interview with Forbes that the partners are more likely to buyout or merge with an existing cable channel rather than try to start one from scratch.
Spearheading the venture is Charles Hirschhorn, who spearheaded the creation of the G4 network for Comcast which involved buying and closing down TechTv, owned by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures.
There’s an interesting connection with Comcast here. Seacrest does a lot of work on Comcast’s E! network, and has a deal with Comcast Entertainment, which gets first look at all his projects. It would make sense that Comcast would get involved, though a source at Comcast says it’s not even considering it right now. Leiweke is hopeful. “We have zero interest in competing with E!” he says, adding, “Over the long term, being in business with Ryan will probably bring us closer to Comcast.”
AEG, which is wholly owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz (who owns the L.A. Kings, L.A. Galaxy, a third of the Lakers and stakes in seven other sports franchises), already has some business with Comcast’s Versus network, which broadcasts some of its hockey games as well as the AEG-owned Amgen Tour of California bike race.
Total speculation here, but some day it might even make sense for Comcast to acquire AEG and combine the dozens of arenas and venues operated by the Comcast Spectacor division with the 120 sites controlled by AEG. Both Spectacor and AEG are developing their own new ticketing businesses to better compete with Ticketmaster, which was recently merged into Live Nation.....
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