Ticketing Drives DEAG & Eventim

DEAG posted a loss of euro 3.8 million (EBIT) for the first six months of 2016, compared with a loss of euro 7.6 million at this point in time last year. Revenues declined from euro 118.7 million in 2015 to euro 78.9 million. To CEO Peter Schwenkow this is no reason for concern. He banks on the second half of the year to reach his company’s projections. This year’s Euro tournament meant DEAG scheduled its major concerts for the second half of 2016. David Garrett, Disney on Ice and Red Hot Chili Peppers are supposed to lead the charge.

The amount of tickets sold through myticket.de and myticket.co.uk is “constantly increasing,” according to the official statement. Britain remains a “highly attractive” market despite the Brexit. Overall ticket sales are expected to further strengthen the company’s EBIT margin. DEAG plans to launch a myticket offshoot in one more European market shortly to meet its goal of selling 40 percent of its content through its own, online-only platform.

As far as the company’s festivals are concerned, Rockavaria (Germany), Rock in Vienna (Austria) and Rock The Ring (Switzerland) are mentioned as positive examples. Rock im Revier, which was conceptualized as a twin event to Rockavaria in 2015, but experienced some trouble from the get-go, isn’t mentioned. Its website was also down at the time of writing.

DEAG plans to strengthen its position in the Swiss market with potentially one more festival. Whether the intention is to launch a new one or tap into an existing one is not mentioned in the release. The plan, again, is to boost ticket sales.

Eventim increased both its EBITDA by 2.8 percent to euro 81.4 million, as well as its revenues by 0.5 percent to euro 421.8 million.

“The ticketing segment achieved a significant 10.9 per cent improvement in revenue (before intersegment consolidation) to reach euro 161.3m, thus remaining a key growth driver for the CTS Group,” the announcement states. EBITDA in the ticketing segment increased by 10.6 percent to euro 57.2 million. Online sales contributed significantly to these improved earnings figures. The total volume of admission tickets sold online was up 21.7 percent at euro 18.1 million.

Looking at earnings in the live entertainment segment, the 2015 half-year results could not be reached, “given the absence of contributions from major tours.”

Sales were down 5.5 percent at euro 261.9 million, and EBITDA fell 12.8 percent to euro 23.8 million. The CTS Group will proceed as always, which means implementing “its strategy of international expansion. This involves organic growth fuelled by innovative products and services, as well as careful analysis of potentially attractive acquisitions.

“Expanding online ticketing operations remains another prioritized field of activity.”