Three months ago, when the news, sports and entertainment worlds converged on Indianapolis for the Super Bowl, Ryan Seacrest was at home in Hollywood — and feeling uncharacteristically jealous.


He sent an e-mail to Steve Burke, the chief executive of NBCUniversal, whose NBC network was broadcasting the football game. “I’m going nuts not being there,” Mr. Seacrest wrote.


The next time NBC shows a Super Bowl, in 2015, it’s likely that Mr. Seacrest will be there.


On Friday he signed a new contract with NBCUniversal that will have him contribute to the “Today” show, Olympics coverage, election coverage and other special events. But not exclusively. He will remain at Fox Broadcasting, hosting “American Idol”; at Clear Channel, hosting radio shows; and, most likely, at ABC, hosting the New Year’s Eve special that Dick Clark started 40 years ago.


Already Mr. Seacrest makes well more than $50 million a year from his current jobs, but his busy days are increasingly about businesses behind the scenes, as he tries to do what Mr. Clark did decades ago: build an entertainment empire. (Mr. Clark died in April.)


The exact shape his holding company, Ryan Seacrest Media, will eventually take is unclear to many in the media industry and may even be unclear to Mr. Seacrest, 37, who declined an interview request for this article last week. But he appears to be placing several important bets — a few on broadcasting, a couple on cable, a couple on the Web.


“He wants to build a major worldwide lifestyle brand with TV production as just one part of that empire,” said Richard J. Bressler, a managing director of the private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners. That firm, and Bain Capital, which together control Clear Channel, announced last winter a $300 million commitment to work together on investments and acquisitions.


“Ryan’s a rare breed: a great creative talent but also a very good business person,” said Bob Pittman, the chief executive of Clear Channel.


Mr. Seacrest, who started hosting radio shows as a teenager, became nationally known a decade ago when he was named the host of “Idol,” which became the biggest reality show on television. With “Idol” as his foundation, he started making more deals: radio shows for Clear Channel, newscasts for E! and a spot next to Mr. Clark on “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” He was made a producer as well as a host of each, giving him more financial and editorial control.


Then his company started making its own shows. The misses, like “Momma’s Boys” on NBC, have been mostly forgotten, but the hits, like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” on E!, have persuaded channels like Bravo and CMT to buy its shows. On Monday E! announced it had ordered another, a reality show starring Kevin Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers, and his wife, Danielle Deleasa.


In this way Mr. Seacrest may be modeling himself on Mr. Clark, who once said he made money from his “American Bandstand” “horizontally, vertically, every which way you can think of.”


Mr. Seacrest’s production company is developing scripted TV and film projects as well. Eager to gain a toehold in TV production, Clear Channel took a minority stake in the company this year. When its new shows begin (like Bravo’s “Shahs of Sunset,” which started in March, and was recently renewed), Clear Channel’s radio stations will promote them aggressively, Mr. Pittman said, describing the cross-pollination as an advantage in “this fragmented media world.”


Clear Channel is expected to announce that Mr. Seacrest’s $20-million-a-year deal there has been extended two more years, through 2015, at a value of more than $25 million each year. The company declined to comment.