Nashville’s music scene is expanding its global reach for country.
The Tennessean reports a new ally in Opry Entertainment Group’s ambitions for Circle, home of Opry Live, and other Nashville-centric entertainment brands, has pledged $300 million to scale up the media network and its content providers.
Private-equity firm Atairos Group will take a 30% stake in OEG, a subsidiary of hotel-and-convention-center resort leader Ryman Hospitality Properties.
Together, the companies hope to leverage OEG to be a global powerhouse as “the leading player in country lifestyle live entertainment and media content,” according to a joint statement.
The deal includes investment from NBCUniversal that could create opportunities in the future with other Comcast businesses.
Circle’s platform will be expanded to maneuver in the hyper-competitive streaming landscape where brand giants like Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video – which hosted the ACM Awards last month – and Netflix continuously push to court subscribers with big-budget programming.
“This is a big deal for the company and a big deal for the city of Nashville,” Ryman CEO Colin Reed said. “Our philosophy is to put these businesses in markets where the country-lifestyle consumer resides or visits. Ireland is a massive market for country music.”
Atairos’s partnership brings with it another meaningful landmark for the growing enterprise – OEG’s first independent market valuation.
The firm signed onto the long-term partnership with Ryman Hospitality Properties after determining its entertainment properties are valued at between $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion.
The valuation is based on projected total earnings this year of $80 million to $88 million, multiplied by up to 18 times, according to company documents.
Assets include the 96-year-old Grand Ole Opry, 130-year-old Ryman Auditorium, WSM 650 AM radio station, media network Circle, and Blake Shelton’s Ole Red country-bar brand in Nashville, Orlando, Gatlinburg and soon, Las Vegas.
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