Features
Live Nation’s Blockbuster Of A Deal
Live Nation used to be a customer of Ticketmaster but the two have had a bitter divorce, with the world’s largest concert promoter expecting to launch its own ticketing next month. That takes a chunk out of TM’s business, now that entire concert tours can bypass the well-known ticketing system.
But Ticketmaster has an advantage over Live Nation in many regards, one of which is locations in the real, physical world. One can buy tickets at Ticketmaster kiosks inside grocery stores, department stores and Wal-Marts. Live Nation tickets? Until now, they were based in cyberworld.
But when January rolls around, Live Nation will have a kiosk. It’s called Blockbuster. LN tickets will be sold within 500 outlets of the DVD rental conglomerate. In fact, Blockbuster will sell blocks of tickets hours before they’re available anywhere else, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Blockbuster “gives us great consistency of brand, great footprint location, and turns retail ticketing into an asset,” Live Nation ticketing CEO Nathan Hubbard told the WSJ. Retail ticketing was viewed previously as low priority, he added.
This is good for Blockbuster, too. The public may like that there are no more late fees, but when a company does away with its largest source of income, it’s never good for the stock, which reacted negatively.
Blockbuster has tried to match Netflix with mail-order services, but it’s a Johnny-come-lately. To that effect, Blockbuster has been diversifying its business, from adding game and DVD player sales to new distribution efforts like burning movies onto Archos digital media players in store.
The Blockbuster ticketing service is expected to account for 10 percent of the more than 10 million tickets sales Live Nation expects to have in the U.S. next year.