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Berchtold will argue that enforcement of the BOTS Act, a 2016 law aimed at improving online ticket sales, is lacking and call for new legislation. According to the written remarks, Berchtold will also comment on "unprecedented demand" for Taylor Swift tickets and bot traffic that was "three times" higher than it has experienced in the past. Bot traffic is typical for ticket sales, especially during popular events like Swift's highly anticipated tour. "While the bots failed to penetrate our systems or acquire any tickets, the attack required us to slow down and even pause our sales," Berchtold is expected to say. As we said after the onsale, and I reiterate today, we apologize to the many disappointed fans as well as to Ms.

☆ Taylor Swift ticket sales debacle manages to unite bitter rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Some people may even find a kind of beauty in the way the system was designed to keep special interests in check. “To have a strong capitalist system, you have to have competition,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, who called the hearing. “You can’t have too much consolidation — something that, unfortunately for this country, as an ode to Taylor Swift, I will say, we know all too well.”(Nice one, Ames.) ICYMI, tickets for Swift’s Eras Tour, which begins in March, went up for pre-sale on Ticketmaster in mid-November. But the bigger question of whether Live Nation is a monopoly is up to the Department of Justice.

Amy Edwards demonstrates against the live entertainment ticket industry outside the U.S. Capitol January 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Senate Judiciary Committee slammed concert giant Live Nation on Tuesday, calling on activists and artists to speak to competition in the ticketing industry following a botched sale of Taylor Swift tickets in November. Opponents intensified their complaints in November when presale tickets for Swift's Eras Tour were plagued by disruptions and slow queues. Live Nation was supposed to open up sales for 1.5 million verified fans ahead of general public ticket sales. The Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation's practices, however, that probe predates the Swift ticket sale fiasco.

☆ Ticketmaster-parent exec to blame 'industrial-scale ticket scalping' in testimony
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The president of Ticketmaster parent Live Nation (LYV.N), Joe Berchtold, is expected to testify on Tuesday before Congress that "industrial-scale ticket scalping" was to blame for the company's problems late last year in managing the sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets. Ticketmaster, which has been unpopular with fans for years, has drawn fresh heat from U.S. lawmakers over how it handled ticket sales for Swift's "Eras" tour, her first in five years. Experts say that Ticketmaster commands more than 70% market share of primary ticket services for major U.S. concert venues. In November, Ticketmaster canceled a planned ticket sale to the general public for Swift's tour after more than 3.5 billion requests from fans, bots and scalpers overwhelmed its website. A previous Ticketmaster dispute with the Justice Department culminated in a December 2019 settlement extending the consent agreement into 2025.

☆ Ticketmaster under fire: 6 takeaways from hearing over Taylor Swift concert fiasco
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The venues controlled by Live Nation set fees that are “consistent with the other venues in the marketplace,” he said. Entertainment industry pushes back at Ticketmaster’s dominanceMembers of the entertainment industry and one rival spoke out against Ticketmaster’s dominance in the industry. Andrew Harnik/APClyde Lawrence, a singer-songwriter on the witness panel, explained how the company acts as a promoter, a venue and the ticketing company, which eats into performing artists’ revenues. Artists, he said, have no leverage over Live Nation. Lawmaker says Ticketmaster merger should ‘be on the table’Lawmakers repeatedly questioned the US government’s past handling of the Live Nation merger with Ticketmaster.

☆ Senators break down the bad blood with Ticketmaster, Live Nation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSenators break down the bad blood with Ticketmaster, Live NationSen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) join 'Squawk Box' to discuss the upcoming hearing on the ticket industry.

☆ ‘I am the problem. It’s me’: Senators quote Taylor Swift during Ticketmaster hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Live Nation exec will face lawmakers about Taylor Swift concert tickets fiasco
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” Swift wrote on Instagram in November. The mergerCriticism of Ticketmaster’s dominance dates back decades, but the Swift ticketing incident has once again turned that issue into a dinner table discussion at many households. Concert promoter Live Nation and ticketing company Ticketmaster, two of the largest companies in the concert business, announced their merger in 2009. ‘Customers are the ones that pay the price’While irate fans were left scrambling to wade through the Swift ticket confusion, their collective anger caught lawmakers’ attention. To me, what happened with the Swift concert tickets was not necessarily the result of Ticketmaster being the dominant player in the industry,” he said.

☆ Live Nation president apologizes to Taylor Swift and her fans for ticketing fiasco and says the industry is still competitive
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Live Nation president and CFO Joe Berchtold apologized to Taylor Swift and fans for the ticket debacle. Berchtold said that the company faced bot attacks during the Swift ticket sale, impacting service, and apologized to Swift and fans. This power over the entire live entertainment industry allows Live Nation to maintain its monopolistic interests over the primary ticketing market," Groetzinger said. "This is all a definition of monopoly, because Live Nation is so powerful that it doesn't even need to exert pressure," Klobuchar said. Lawrence, who's written for the New York Times on Live Nation and its impact on artists, said Live Nation often functions as three different things: promoter, venue, and ticketing company.

☆ Live Nation CFO defends Ticketmaster, blames bots for Taylor Swift debacle
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Live Nation Entertainment is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2019. Ticketmaster has come under harsh criticism from fans and lawmakers, accusing it of having too much control over the market for concert tickets. Berchtold’s testimony said Live Nation has invested over $1 billion over the years to improve Ticketmaster. “Whether it meets the legal definition of a monopoly or not, Live Nation’s control of the live music ecosystem is staggering.”Ticketmaster has denied any anti-competitive practices and remains under a consent decree with the Justice Department following its 2010 merger with Live Nation. Live Nation included letters of support with its testimony including one from singer Garth Brooks who asked” My question is, as a country, why don’t we just make scalping illegal?

☆ Live Nation CFO to testify in Senate after Taylor Swift ticketing woes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Live Nation Entertainment is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidWASHINGTON (Reuters) -Live Nation Entertainment President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Berchtold will testify at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday after its Ticketmaster’s unit had problems managing the sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets, the committee said. Live Nation did not immediately comment. “As Live Nation leverages its power across the concert ecosystem to increase its profits, concertgoers see higher prices, and artists experience challenging touring dynamics,” Lawrence wrote in a New York Times essay last month. In November, Ticketmaster denied any anti-competitive practices and noted it remained under a consent decree with the Justice Department following its 2010 merger with Live Nation.

☆ Country Music Star Zach Bryan Is Trying to Break Up With Ticketmaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Anne Steele | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Country star Zach Bryan’s coming concert tour is trying to dodge one major stop: Ticketmaster. The down-home crooner, who has been outspoken about the ticketing giant’s dominance in the music industry, on Thursday announced his first arena headlining tour, which will go through venues that don’t have exclusive ticketing agreements with Ticketmaster. He will play and even headline some music festivals that will be ticketed by Ticketmaster, a setup that Mr. Bryan has described as beyond his control.

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee will hold a hearing on Jan. 24 on the lack of competition in the ticketing industry after Ticketmaster's problems managing the sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is titled "That’s The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment." "We will examine how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries harms customers and artists alike." Consent decrees are often used to prohibit potentially anticompetitive practices or impose other requirements as a condition of merger approvals. A previous Ticketmaster dispute with the Justice Department culminated in a December 2019 settlement extending the consent agreement into 2025.

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☆ Why the NFL will barely lose any money from canceling the Bills-Bengals game
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The average ticket price for a non-premium seat to a Bengals game is about $88, the cheapest in the NFL, according to Team Marketing Reports, which tracks ticket prices. TMR estimates that the cost of all the tickets, both regular and premium seats, for the game came to about $6.7 million. If it opted to replay or continue the postponed game, the NFL almost certainly would have needed to push back the playoffs that are set to start next weekend. That game likely would have received enormous fan interest and ratings approximating those of a playoff game or Super Bowl. That means that ticketholders will lose the profit they might have received from selling the tickets, but those who bought the tickets won’t be hit with the difference between what they paid, and what they could get in a refund.

☆ FanDuel's Amy Howe tries to balance pragmatism, humility, and profitability — all while being a trailblazer in a male-dominated industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

As the CEO of FanDuel, Amy Howe accomplished a feat this year that so far no other US sports-betting platform has been able to achieve: profitability. Seeking constant innovationThis year Howe launched FanDuel TV, a 24-hour television network, which features a mix of studio programming and live sports. She also sealed deals with the WNBA and the New York Yankees, making FanDuel the official sportsbook partner and official daily fantasy partner for the league and team. At the SBC Summit North America trade show and conference this year, she described the female market as an "untapped opportunity" and detailed a number of FanDuel's initiatives to bring more women bettors into the fold. "We're always a little bit paranoid about making sure that we can continue to maintain that position," Howe told Insider last year.

☆ Country music star Zach Lane Bryan releases album slamming Ticketmaster and accuses it of 'stealing money from working-class people'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Country musician Zach Lane Bryan released a live album "All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster," on Dec. 25. On Instagram, he claimed, "monopolies" like Ticketmaster are "stealing from working-class people." "I believe working-class people should still be able to afford tickets to shows," the Oklahoma native said in his Instagram post. "I am so tired of people saying things can't be done about this massive issue while huge monopolies sit there stealing money from working-class people." Bryan joins a choir of voices — artists, fans, and politicians alike — that have called Ticketmaster out for so-called monopoly-like behavior.

☆ Why the Taylor Swift debacle could lead to renewed scrutiny of the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Lawmakers and Swifties are calling for the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger to be reexamined. The Department of Justice was reportedly investigating the merger prior to the Eras Tour madness. Now, the Department of Justice is reportedly investigating the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger, a probe that began even before the Eras Tour debacle. That's the kind of merger critics argue happened with Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Live Nation has not incurred any of those penalties.

☆ It's not just Taylor Swift. Musicians describe the 'demented struggle' of touring in a shrinking industry where one giant company sells the tickets for most major venues.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

On top of that, the Justice Department is reportedly investigating the 2010 merger of industry leaders Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Live Nation Entertainment said in a statement that it owns and operates just over 100 of the nearly 4,000 total live music venues in the United States. "Put simply, artists, venues, and consumers should no longer be at the mercy of a single seller," Sens. At the same time, Live Nation Entertainment is seeing a record year due to more shows than ever. "We always welcome the opportunity to discuss important issues facing the live entertainment industry," Live Nation said in a statement.

☆ Growth is hard to come by in the stock market these days. Here’s where to find it
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That is below the trailing 10-year average annual earnings growth rate of 8.5%. T-Mobile has the highest expected earnings growth for next year, coming in at 232%. Shares gained more than 20% so far this year and have 25.7% upside to the average price target, per FactSet. Live Nation Entertainment, meanwhile, has an expected earnings growth of nearly 50% in 2023. The bank has an expected 20.8% earnings growth for next year and nearly 21% upside to the average analyst price target.

☆ Ticketmaster’s Market Power, Explained
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Crypto’s Crash Has Been Swift but Largely Self-Contained. Crypto imploded in 2022, as investors lost faith in digital assets and the industry was plagued with crisis. But unlike other collapses, it has largely avoided rippling into other markets. WSJ explains how crypto became so interconnected. Illustration: Mallory Brangan

☆ A solo Ticketmaster might attract financial fans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

NEW YORK, Dec 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The drums are beating louder for a breakup of Live Nation Entertainment (LYV.N). For Live Nation, it’s not entirely clear that the flywheel is spinning smoothly. Live Nation says it is so dominant because it’s so much better than the competition. Putting the complicated legal and regulatory questions aside, there’s probably a financial case for Ticketmaster to become a solo act. Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster in 2010.

Technology and entertainmentYou can also give your child's teacher a gift card they can use for entertainment. If your child's teacher already has one of these subscriptions, they can put the gift card toward their account balance. A gift card to Ticketmaster will give your child's teacher the opportunity to put money toward a live show of their choice. Gift cards from merchants like Audible or Bookshop.org will give your child's teacher an engaging way to pass their commute. Gift cards from educational retailers like Lakeshore and Teachers Pay Teachers will help your child's teacher offset classroom costs.

☆ Ticketmaster Apologizes Again, This Time for Bad Bunny Ticket Fiasco
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Alyssa Lukpat | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ticketmaster apologized to Bad Bunny fans who bought tickets but were turned away from the artist’s concert in Mexico City on Friday because security officers thought their tickets were fake. Ticketmaster said its system was overwhelmed because an unprecedented number of people with fake tickets tried to get into Aztec Stadium for Bad Bunny’s concert. The confusion between which tickets were real or fake caused some people with legitimate tickets to be rejected, too, the ticketing company said.

☆ Ticketmaster is in hot water — again — and facing a fine after an 'unprecedented' number of people were sold fake tickets to a Bad Bunny concert
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ticketmaster apologized after an "unprecedented" number of people were sold fake Bad Bunny tickets. It follows Ticketmaster's Taylor Swift debacle last month. The ticketing platform released a statement on Saturday apologizing after an "unprecedented" number of people were sold fake tickets to a Bad Bunny concert in Mexico City. The Bad Bunny fiasco comes soon after Ticketmaster's Taylor Swift debacle. Live Nation has been facing a DOJ antitrust investigation since before the Taylor Swift fiasco, The New York Times reported last month.

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