TJ Chambers
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Following the end-of-year seasonal shutdown of live entertainment there is a brief period of relaxation and calm.
The Twixmas days between Christmas and the New Year then usually provide an opportunity to reflect on the recent past and to imagine the near future.
An invitation from Ticketing Business News allowed a shape-of-things-to-come contribution from this author (Futurology 2025 – disclaimer: past performance is no guarantee of future results https://tjchambers.blog/2025/01/02/futurology-2025-disclaimer-past-performance-is-no-guarantee-of-future-results/) which appeared to resonate in particular with readers in France and the Netherlands, alongside the U.K.
Topics discussed included the increased intervention by Private Equity driving live entertainment sector consolidation, above-inflation ticket price increases and the growing focus on attracting incremental revenues to event P&L.
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Elsewhere, the ongoing dynamic of statutory financial reports, corporate fundraising and M&A within live entertainment industry continued.
Items of passing interest include the Registration of Charges by Dice FM Holdings Ltd. (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08905651) on the 11th November, and 19th December 2024, along with the failure to file their 2023 Annual Accounts within the 31st December 2024 timeline.
Speculation amongst the ticketing chattering-classes regarding the immediate future of the ticketing software company therefore continues.
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Separately Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Ltd. (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02518625) and Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01490880) both published their 2023-24 Annual Accounts.
DMT, is a theatre group which owns eight West End London theatres and reported profits of £12.4M for the year-ending March 2024 with revenues of £71.5M.
Secondary spend per head (food, drink and merchandise) increased across the venues, whilst the company remained ‘mindful’ of the cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing squeeze on consumers’ disposable income.
CML, producer of theatrical and musical entertainments, reported profits of £43.2M for the year-ending March 2024, down on the £45.4M in the previous 12 months.
The company claimed profits were hit by rising costs and an increased number of staff, but increased ticket prices and enhanced ‘secondary spend’ again drove revenue growth from £185.8M to £199M.
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An article in the Financial Times by Daniel Thomas questioned whether the apparently vibrant West End theatre sector had now surpassed Broadway – The West End is enjoying a theatre revival. Can Broadway keep up? https://www.ft.com/content/aadca358-75a4-47aa-ab7d-fe46608285df.
Quoting figures from the Society of London Theatre (https://solt.co.uk/) that in the first 9 months of 2024 attendances reached 13.2M with revenues of £793M with the full year results likely to exceed the 17.1 admissions reported in 2023.
By comparison the Broadway League (https://www.broadwayleague.com/home/) reported that the 2023-24 season attracted 12.29M admissions, but $1.539 Bn in revenues with the average cost of a ticket in London being just under £60 compared to more than $125 in New York.
The question was raised whether this is a temporary, or permanent realignment within the theatrical sector,
Several factors identified for the relative success of the West End versus Broadway included the amount of tax relief that can be claimed for creating new productions, the UK’s long-established system of arts subsidy, lower overall event production and labour costs, and the lingering effects of the pandemic on U.S. audiences and international tourists.
However, the article also suggested that regional theatre network within the States where costs are lower and many shows travel after Broadway, appeared to be in ‘rude health’.
By comparison regional theatre within the U.K. was apparently struggling albeit with the exception being the annual Pantomime season.
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Elsewhere, the PE firm Providence Equity announced that its majority-owned ATG Entertainment, the leading theatrical producer and venue operator, had acquired SOM Produce, a theatre producer, operator and distributor in Spain further expanding its international network (ATG Entertainment Announces the Acquisition of SOM Produce https://www.provequity.com/news/atg-entertainment-announces-acquisition-som-produce) – financial terms not disclosed.
The transaction added five theatres in the centre of Madrid – Nuevo Teatro Alcalá, Teatro Rialto, Teatro Nuevo Apolo, Teatro Calderón, and Teatro Amaya – to the sixty-four ATG Entertainment already operated, with ten in the West End, thirty-eight across the U.K., seven in Broadway, twenty-one others across the U.S. and lastly five in Germany.
This is less than one month on from the purchase of touring Broadway presenter Celebrity Attractions (ATG Entertainment acquires Celebrity Attractions, expanding Broadway touring network https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/atg-entertainment-acquires-celebrity-attractions-expanding-broadway-touring-network/).
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And lastly, in the U.S. Bloomberg reported Vivid Seats the secondary ticketing marketplace whose competitors include StubHub and SeatGeek amongst others, was exploring a sale ‘after receiving takeover interest’ (Online Ticket Marketplace Vivid Seats Is Exploring a Sale – Ryan Gould and Gillian Tan https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-30/online-ticket-marketplace-vivid-seats-is-exploring-a-sale).
Business media speculation regarding the identity of the potential acquirer or even if a transaction would occur, followed in numerous publications including Billboard (https://www.billboard.com/pro/vivid-seats-fielding-acquisition-offers-report/), MusicAlly (https://musically.com/2025/01/07/report-ticketing-platform-vivid-seats-is-exploring-a-sale/), IQ Magazine (https://www.iq-mag.net/2025/01/report-vivid-seats-fields-acquisition-offers/), and Digital Music News (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/01/03/vivid-seats-sale-rumors/) but few offered any additional insight.
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Whilst finalising this post the UK Government announced (10th January 2025) a consultation to identify new measures to prevent consumers from being defrauded by ticket touts: Plan to tackle greedy ticket touts and give power back to fans https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-tackle-greedy-ticket-touts-and-give-power-back-to-fans.
A new cap on the price of resold tickets for concerts, live sport and other events were among the measures announced, which also stated that the Government would review ticket pricing practices within the live events sector, including ’dynamic pricing’.
More obviously to follow.
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