{"id":714,"date":"2005-06-16T05:49:42","date_gmt":"2005-06-16T12:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/06\/we_wont_say_we_told_you_so\/"},"modified":"2005-06-16T05:49:42","modified_gmt":"2005-06-16T12:49:42","slug":"we_wont_say_we_told_you_so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/we_wont_say_we_told_you_so.php","title":{"rendered":"We won&#8217;t say we told you so"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Businessweek<\/i> has an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/magazine\/content\/05_25\/b3938093_mz016.htm?chan=tc\">interesting update\/overview on Clear Channel Communications<\/a>, and the current effort of the media and entertainment mega-company to disassemble itself. The company has proposed spinning off its live entertainment division (which owns theaters, productions, agents, and such) into a separate corporation. Says the article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nFrom the beginning, Wall Street never much liked the live-entertainment business, for which Clear Channel paid a hefty $4.4 billion in 2000 in a deal for Robert Sillerman&#8217;s SFX Entertainment Inc. Promoting concerts and owning venues was supposed to be a good fit with radio: Shows could be promoted with on-air ads, and radio stations could woo listeners at concerts. But the payoff never materialized. The entertainment business accounts for about 29% of Clear Channel&#8217;s revenue but only 6% of cash flow, with margins in single digits, vs. upwards of 40% for radio.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It turns out that live productions and performances have high fixed costs, low marginal returns, and can be a pain to profitably produce as compared to other forms of entertainment. I&#8217;m sure there are many in the nonprofit presenting industry that could have told them that a long time ago.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t expect Clear Channel&#8217;s live entertainment efforts to fade away, even if the split goes through. You&#8217;ll likely just see a separate company with lower revenue expectations, but holding a wonking big share of the national performing arts and entertainment world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Businessweek has an interesting update\/overview on Clear Channel Communications, and the current effort of the media and entertainment mega-company to disassemble itself. The company has proposed spinning off its live entertainment division (which owns theaters, productions, agents, and such) into a separate corporation. Says the article: From the beginning, Wall Street never much liked the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}