If you can't beat em, buy em Tuesday, January 29, 2008
In a huge corporate u-turn, some have described as hypocritical, Ticketmaster in the UK have bought secondary ticket exchange Getmein. This follows a purchase of a similar business in the USA this month by Ticketmaster USA.
Ticketmaster had made strong representations to the UK Government Select Committee in the Summer arguing it should legislate against such ventures. That Committee declined to make such recommendations in its recent report.
So, following the flop of its Ticket Exchange venture that ensured people could only sell tickets at a loss, they've evidently had a sudden change of heart.
This raises an interesting scenario. Thanks to exclusive deals with many venues and promoters, Ticketmaster control some of the ticket supply to popular events. So what precludes them from releasing such supply directly into the secondary market and profiteering on their own account? Whilst they may be separate legal entities etc it would be staggering for them not to cross sell, especially with 4 million registered customers known to want tickets.
Perhaps this is part of the start of an awakening to economic realities and market models by Ticketmaster.
It will certainly be interesting to see if they sign up to the Music Manager Forum backed initiative that seeks to impose a levy of 15% of revenues on secondary market operators.
posted by John Wilson @ 6:30 PM Permanent Link
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