iHeartMedia

iHeartMedia is the largest commercial radio broadcasting company in the United States, operating more than 850 radio stations and the iHeartRadio digital platform, which aggregates streaming radio, on-demand podcasts and live events. The company was formerly known as Clear Channel Communications before rebranding in 2014. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018 and emerged in 2019 under its current structure. iHeartMedia is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, and employs approximately 15,000 people.

iHeartMedia's scale in US audio gives it a syndication reach that conventional broadcast networks do not have: a single show can run simultaneously across hundreds of owned-and-operated stations plus the iHeartRadio digital platform. The company produces and distributes original audio content as well as live music events under the iHeartRadio brand. Its television and streaming partnerships are a newer line of business that extends its audio-first brands into video.

In 2026, iHeartMedia partnered with Netflix to move The Breakfast Club, the long-running morning show hosted by Charlamagne tha God and originating on Power 105.1 in New York, from YouTube to Netflix as a daily live programme. The deal signals a maturation in iHeartMedia's cross-platform rights strategy, placing a flagship audio brand on the world's largest streaming service as a live product.

On 1 June 2026, Netflix launched its first daily live show, The Breakfast Club with iHeartMedia, available ad-free at 6am ET worldwide. The deal moves a New York morning radio show from its YouTube home to Netflix's live streaming infrastructure, testing whether a daily live radio-format programme can build a streaming audience outside its US radio catchment. iHeartMedia provides the programming and talent; Netflix provides the global distribution and ad-free environment.

In June 2026, iHeartMedia was named as one of eight inventory partners in Horizon Media's HorizonOS Blu, an agentic orchestration layer built on the Model Context Protocol that routes media buys across channels in real time, alongside Disney, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, TikTok, Snap, Clear Channel and OUTFRONT. Horizon and WPP together directed approximately $17 billion in annual media spend at agentic buying on one protocol on 18 June 2026. iHeartMedia's inclusion signals that audio advertising inventory is treated as a first-class channel in the agentic buying architecture alongside television and digital display, a significant positioning for a company whose revenue is almost entirely audio-derived.