DEAG Reports Record Revenues For 2024
DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG achieved new record revenue of around €370 million ($420 million) in 2024 – a sales increase of around 18 percent compared to previous year’s €313.5 million ($356 million). It marks a significant growth in what is a transformative year for the company – the first full business year with Detlef Kornett as sole CEO.
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DEAG’s ticketing business is expanding, with the entire group selling over 11 million tickets in 2024, compared to 10 million in the previous year.
Other areas of success DEAG highlights in its current earning report, include the company’s spoken word and literary events division, which achieved a 10 percent share of revenue within three years since becoming part of the business; as well as the company’s own international event brands such as the Christmas Garden with a total of 15 locations in Europe; many tours, and a total of over 30 festivals and open air concerts in the EDM and rock/pop genres.
Some of DEAG’s more recent UK investments include the acquisition of the How To Academy, as well as ShowPlanr; a majority stake in Germany’s Black Mamba Event & Marketing; or the acquisition of MC2 Live S.p.A., which gave the company a presence in Italy.
DEAG created the role of sustainability officer within the company last year, and made further investments to digitalize and modernize its IT infrastructure, which would “benefit the Ticketing segment in particular,” according to a press release on DEAG’s 2024 earnings, which states, that all of the above “measures will drive organic growth in the Live Entertainment business.”
Looking at the fourth quarter of 2024 in isolation, group revenues increased by around 17 percent to €117 million ($133 million). The last three months of the financial year were characterized by the traditionally strong Christmas business and a good presale business for the 2025 season.
At the time of writing, DEAG had sold some four million tickets for events in 2025, which marks “a new record for advance sales figures for a subsequent year,” according to the press release.
Fixed revenues generated this year already stand at around €150 million ($170 million), significantly exceeding the previous record of €129 million set in 2021 for the 2022 season, which became DEAG’s the most successful financial year to date.
Given a steady and strong growth of the group’s own ticketing business, DEAG is aiming to sell 12 million tickets to concerts, festivals and live events in 2025.
Detlef Kornett, Group CEO of DEAG: “We have consistently implemented our growth strategy and made a conscious decision in 2024 to make above-average investments in our sustainable business development in order to secure our future and position ourselves in the best possible way. Successes are already visible. We started the current year with tailwind and our ticket sales are at record levels. Our event pipeline is excellently filled and we expect 2025 to be a much stronger year with a significant increase in profitability.”
2024 was used as the announced transformation year to lay the foundation for sustainable and profitable growth through targeted investments in the future.
In favor of this stringent growth course, DEAG has “consciously and strategically accepted a temporary reduction in earnings,” according to the press release.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to around €14.4 million, compared to €26.4 million in the previous year.
According to DEAG, this was mainly down to one-time special effects: “Investments in the future in organizational and strategic development, particularly in connection with the restructuring of the executive board, divisional executive board, and supervisory board, which has not yet been fully completed, as well as additional expenses due to weather-related challenges in staging open-air events in parts of Europe, which were necessary in the areas of security and logistics.”
Another reason for the reduced EBITDA is “the implementation of strategic measures for comprehensive digitalization – a forward-looking step with which the company is strengthening its innovative power and creating the basis for sustainable growth.
Additional funds were also channeled into the ESG reporting – required by the EU since 2023, when it passed a corporate sustainability reporting directive.
Finally, as part of the market shake-out in the festival segment in Europe, DEAG made some portfolio adjustments, affecting earnings negatively in the short term, but increasing profitability in the future.
The EBITDA margin was around 4% at the end of the fiscal year 2024, and is expected to increase significantly again in the current financial year.
Some of the successful tours, festivals, concerts and live events DEAG promoted across all genres and sizes in 2024, include concerts by AC/DC, Zucchero, German Schlager-rap phenom TREAM, as well as the Böhse Onkelz open-air tour; plus over 30 festivals in the EDM and Rock/Pop genres.
DEAG also organized the “Barcelona Rock Fest” for the first time since entering the Spanish market right at the end of 2023 through a collaboration with Spanish promoter veteran Pierre Sabbag. Deep Purple, Parkway Drive and Pantera performed in 2024.
Other highlights include the multimedia exhibition “Tim Burton’s Labyrinth,” which sold over 100,000 tickets in 2024, as well as the continued appeal of DEAG’s spoken word & literary events segment, as exemplified by the popular event format “An Evening with…,” featuring world-famous authors; or the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in March 2025 by welcoming around 120,000 visitors.
“The current financial year 2025 has gotten off to an excellent start,” the earnings statement continues. DEAG expects ticket sales to remain strong. The group’s 2025 calendar includes concerts and tours by artists such as Sam Fender, Stereophonics, Andrea Bocelli, Till Lindemann, Lana Del Rey, Iron Maiden, as well as the long-sold-out stadium show by the Scorpions, who are celebrating their 60th anniversary as a band.
The 2025 arena tour in celebration of Böhse Onkelz 45th anniversary was also in high demand: 160,000 tickets were sold exclusively via the Group’s own ticketing platform myticket.de within just a few hours.
Finally, due to overwhelming demand, the Berlin Philharmonic will give a second end-of-season concert at Berlin’s Waldbühne for the first time in 2025.
The full annual financial report 2024 is available for download on DEAG’s corporate website at www.deag.de.
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