Ticketmaster Dropping Fees - But Will It Help?

Ticketmaster is famous for fees that concert goers love to hate. Now the ticketing giant is experimenting with dropping those fees in an attempt to gain customers in an increasingly tough economic environment.

Tickets for the Eagles' upcoming concert will be available without any Ticketmaster (TKTM) convenience fees, and if you print your tickets at home, no delivery or handling fees. That doesn't mean concertgoers aren't paying Ticketmaster anything, explained CEO Sean Moriarty in an exclusive CNBC interview. Rather Ticketmaster is working with the Eagles to create an all-in ticketing price, i.e. giving Ticketmaster a cut of the total ticket price.

This partnership between the Eagles and Ticketmaster has come about since the band's manager Irving Azoff became CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment, the new parent company, when Azoff's FrontLine Management merged with Ticketmaster on October 30. This way the Eagles keep their fans happy and Ticketmaster keeps their cut without sending concertgoers running. If it works the company will institute "all-in ticketing" for many other concerts. It makes sense - why not let people know upfront exactly how much they'll be spending? And with Front Line managing big names like Christina Aguilera and Neil Diamond this could be the beginning of a big plan.

And dumping their much-hated fees is a key way for Ticketmaster to compete with its new rival, Live Nation  (LYV) the nation's largest concert promoter. In January Live Nation will no longer be Ticketmaster's partner and will become a major competitor, taking about 15 percent of Ticketmaster's revenue with it. Ticketmaster's merging of talent management and ticketing seems to mirror Live Nation's "360," all-inclusive deals with talent like U2 and Madonna partnered with its new ticketing business.

Ticketmaster announced its new ticketing strategy Monday afternoon when reporting its earnings for the quarter ended September 30. While revenue grew 16 percent from the year-earlier quarter revenue dropped 76 percent on higher royalty payments, lower ticket sales and costs from the acquisitions of two subsidiaries.

The company also bore the weight of some severance costs and says it will continue to do more cost cutting. Ticketmaster only spun off from IAC/InterActive Corp (IACI) in August, and between the economic downturn and the competition it's been a rough time. I'll be curious to see if a new ticketing strategy and new musician partners can help the company ride out the economic downturn.

Comments

[C-Rex:]

Forget TicketMaster and their ridiculous baseless fees. They think they have monopoly power, and they might currently, but won't for much longer. I don't care if the fees are up front, or hidden in the "price" of the ticket.

Everyone should use other ticket services with extreme prejudice.

2008 Nov 15 10:56 PM

[Better Tick...:]

A friend of mine just bought tickets to this concert in Birmingham. ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY BUCKS A PIECE (face value). Eagles tix have never been cheap, but I wonder how much of that is going straight into the hands of the ticket bastard.

There are alternatives out there, but TM plays a dirty monopoly game. They offer big bucks up front for exclusive ticketing contracts with venues, essentially making it impossible for smaller operations to compete. They must have a great lobbyist in DC to get away with what they do.

2008 Nov 20 03:24 PM