Penske Media Eldridge has acquired Dick Clark Productions, marking a major expansion into event programming for Penske Media Corporation, the parent company of WWD, Variety, Rolling Stone, ArtNews and several other brands.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed; DCP, the production company started in 1957 by the late TV host, produces or owns a bevy of awards shows including the Golden Globe Awards, American Music Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards, as well as “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” and Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” PMC and Eldridge have previously partnered on live events including SXSW, Life is Beautiful, the ATX TV festival and LA3C.
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The deal, and the creation of PME, marks a deepening of the partnership between Penske and Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, which began in 2020 when PMC acquired The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard from Eldridge.
“I am thrilled to expand our partnership with Eldridge and Todd,” said PMC chief executive officer Jay Penske, in a statement. “I have long admired DCP’s portfolio of iconic and prominent live entertainment brands and look forward to growing and evolving DCP’s footprint and legacy for future audiences across all platforms.”
The deal comes a few weeks after the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe Awards returned to NBC after a year-long hiatus due to alleged financial impropriety, questions about its voting process and a lack of diversity among its voting members.
“At Eldridge, we seek to grow businesses that stand the test of time,” said Boehly, chairman and CEO of Eldridge. “Our decision to build upon our partnership with Penske Media, with whom we already have a deep alliance around media and publishing, is in service to that goal — so DCP may continue to flourish for many decades to come.”
Dick Clark Productions has had a series of owners; in 2007 RedZone Capital bought the company for $175 million. By 2012, the year Clark died, Guggenheim Partners plunked down $370 million for DCP. As part of the deal, president Adam Stotsky, who came to DCP from NBCUniversal, will step down after a transition period.