SFX Moves Up

The partnership will create a national DJ talent contest that will air live on some Clear Channel stations, as well as on iHeart Radio’s dance music channel Evolution.

The competition is expected to take place at iHeartRatdio Theatres in New York and Los Angeles, with the winner appearing at SFX-owned Mysteryland, to be held at the site of Woodstock in New York during Memorial Day weekend.

The partnership also creates a weekly Top 20 countdown from Beatport that will air on Clear Channel stations nationwide. It is suggested the countdown will be hosted by Ryan Seacrest, who happens to be a partner in AXS Television, run by SFX rival AEG.

It also is expected to include a national EDM event on or around Halloween, according to a statement.

This isn’t the first time SFX Chairman Robert Sillerman has made a deal with Clear Channel.

Sillerman’s roll-up of concert promotion companies was sold to Clear Channel for $4.4 billion in 2000.

The media conglomerate eventually spun off into Live Nation. SFX also announced a partnership with Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus told the New York Times the sponsorship could be worth as much as $25 million next year and $35 million in 2015 as SFX expands its events.

So far, Robert Sillerman’s company owns Tomorrowland in Europe and TomorrowWorld and Electric Zoo in the U.S., along with events titled Sensation, Life In Color and Nature One. 

It announced a partnership with Brazil’s Rock in Rio in November and is bringing the longest-running EDM festival, Mysteryland, to the site of Woodstock for its U.S. debut in Bethel Woods, N.Y., in April.