Q’s With CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg: ‘We Have A Wide Range Of Options For Growth’

– New Horizons Festival 2017
One of CTS Eventim’s growth drivers

It’s been a busy year for CTS Eventim. Hardly a month went by without some major announcement coming out of the company’s headquarters in Germany.

Back in January, CTS Eventim shares reached their highest value since going public in 2000, evaluating the live entertainment giant at more than €4 billion ($5 billion). 

The company continued its expansion in Italy by acquiring promoters D’Alessandro E Galli in February and Vivo Concerti in April.

In March, CTS Eventim announced that the entire group, including its live entertainment and ticketing operations, had exceeded the €1 billion revenue mark for the first time in company history in the fiscal year 2017.

May saw the acquisition of Spanish veteran promoter Doctor Music. In summer CTS Eventim acquired the remaining shares in Scandinavian company Venuepoint from its former joint partner, Nordisk Film.

September and October came with hirings in Switzerland, where it operates as Ticketcorner, and in the UK. Both countries also saw the launch of CTS Eventim’s FanSale resale platform this year.

In November, CTS Eventim registered a new sales record, thanks to Rammstein announcing their first stadium tour in history.

On the downside, the rejection of a merger between CTS Eventim and German promoter Four Artists was upheld by a German court. Another court ruling ordered the company to drop its print-at-home service fee, which it has since fully complied with.

All the while, the company’s quarterly earnings showed unprecedented growth, from Q1 through Q3.  Owning a majority stake in FKP Scorpio, which promoted the European leg of Ed Sheeran’s record-breaking tour will certainly have contributed.

Plenty of reasons to ask CTS Eventim CEO a few questions about the status quo of business.

Nearly all over Europe, Live Entertainment is more popular than ever. This became clear in 2018: Although the Football World Cup was a big competitor for our industry, concerts were still packed: those of major artists like Ed Sheeran and the Rolling Stones, but also a lot of the smaller tours. We were very successful in the long tail in 2018.

At the same time, we no longer view the European markets in isolation from each other. More and more artists expect us to offer them cross-border performance opportunities and ticketing solutions. This is why we will continue to expand our portfolio.

 

We have a wide range of options for growth. In ticketing, we continue to benefit from the fact that more and more customers are buying their tickets online. In the long term, we want to develop our web shops from event portals into leisure portals. We believe that in the future we will be able to sell not ‘just’ a ticket, but various related offers as well. These need to be realised.

I believe that in the near future we will have a completely different understanding of what a ticket is. Today, they give our customers access to great events that last two, three, sometimes four hours. Soon we will be the gateway for millions of people to a world of experiences that offers them much more: a comprehensive range of recreational activities.

 

2018 marked a turning point for the secondary ticketing market. We continue to work together with the promoters to make this area as transparent and fair as possible. Our cooperation with MCT on the Europe-wide Rammstein presale, and regulatory developments in the UK show us the direction that things are developing in.

I can only encourage all market participants, and especially legislators, to play an active role in shaping the market. We would very much welcome a ban on reselling tickets at a price significantly above Face Value.

Nowadays, our wide-ranging value chain means that, more than most other companies, we have to combine high technology and creativity in order to be successful.

On the one hand, artists, promoters, and fans expect us to provide a high-performance ticketing platform: multilingual, with cross-border payment options, secure against bots, data theft, and hacker attacks, with a variety of personalisation options and other special features and functionalities. Add to that an ever-increasing need for insights from data analyses. That’s why topics like AI and Machine Learning are becoming more and more important for our industry as well.

On the other hand, for many people our events are still a guarantee for unique, unforgettable live experiences. This means that the audience’s expectations are constantly rising. Which is why we don’t just invest in the security of events, but in creative content that keeps inspiring people.

 

Both are true. The demographic change occurring in many European countries means that there isn’t an infinite amount of space for ever new festivals. At the same time, we see that the right idea at the right time is still rewarded: Our “New Horizons” festival at the Nürburgring attracted 30 percent more visitors this year than the 2017 debut edition.