Concert Promoters’ 10% Chance

The U.K.’s concert promoters can calculate that they have a one in 10 chance of seeing their business protected from touts after the government said current ticket buying arrangements work "in 90 percent of cases."

Although Shaun Woodward, the minister for creative industries and tourism, has said "big events" will get protection from people reselling tickets, there seems to be little chance it will extend to all live music shows.

"As a very, very last resort – and we are not at that point yet – we might have to consider regulation," was the only consolation for promoters who often see a quarter of their tickets for arena shows resold on the secondary market.

Woodward said June 26 that the government is only looking into the possibility of banning the resale of tickets for such events as Wimbledon, charity shows like Live 8 and the Princess Diana memorial concert, and events considered to have a national resonance.

The government is facing increased pressure from an alliance of the governing bodies of Britain’s five largest sports and leading concert and theatre promoters to take action against the burgeoning ticket black market, which has been fuelled by a generation of "bedroom touts" selling on sites such as eBay.

Ticket touting is already illegal in football and it will be outlawed at the London 2012 Olympics, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is opposed to a blanket ban on the secondary market.