Ticketmaster is the world's largest seller of event tickets. It is based in West Hollywood, California, USA, but has operations in many countries around the world. Typically, Ticketmaster's clients (arenas, stadiums, and theatres) control their events, and Ticketmaster simply acts as an agent, selling the tickets that the clients make available to them. One of the first ticketing companies to sell tickets on the Internet, Ticketmaster now sells a large percentage of its tickets online. On April 28, 1997, Ticketmaster sued Microsoft over its Sidewalk service for allegedly deep linking into Ticketmaster's site. The suit was settled after a two-year legal battle. Ticketmaster has introduced a lot of technology to keep up with fraud and offers the usual variety of options available for consumer goods. Other technology includes barcoded tickets, which offers the ability for counterfeit ticket to be refused at the point of entrance. Although Ticketmaster's market share remains over 50% of total sales for tickets in the United States, the ready availability of web-based ticketing software and the decline of its outlet network have combined to keep its overall sales from growing in 2004 and 2005. Major League Baseball's acquisition of rival Tickets.com in 2005 marks the most recent significant organization moving away from using Ticketmaster's services. Ticketmaster is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, a large company that also owns many other popular Internet sites and services. Contents 1 Service fees 2 Ticket sales market 3 Privacy 4 External links Service fees As an example of a fairly typical markup, a ticket to see Motorhead at Brixton Academy, London 2006, will cost £25, plus £3.75 per ticket service charge, plus £4.95 postage and packing per order. In this example, the fees are approximately an additional 35% of the cost of the ticket. More expensive tickets would have higher charges, but generally proportionately less relative to the total: tickets to see Pavarotti at Chatsworth House were selling for £85 for the ticket, £8 service charge per ticket, and £2.50 per order for either postal delivery or box office collection. Ticketmaster receives no income from the face value of the tickets it sells, as the ticket prices themselves are set by the artists and promoters. Therefore, the only money Ticketmaster makes is from the service charges and handling fees. Ticket sales market Ticketmaster has grown to dominate its market largely due to a lack of competition. Ticketmaster frequently obtains agreements to become the sole provider of tickets for large venues. In many cases, acquiring this exclusivity requires Ticketmaster to pay substantial "signing bonuses" to venues, sometimes millions of dollars. Although this practice can significantly reduce the profitability to Ticketmaster of these exclusive relationships, to date using these bonuses has enabled them to maintain venue exclusivity as a competitive strategy. Ticketmaster is the subject of frequent complaints in the blogosphere and print media due to high ticket service charges. Notably, in the 1990s, Pearl Jam brought a lawsuit alleging that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, whose anticompetitive practices allow markup prices of more than 30%. Ticketmaster was found to be not guilty of violating antitrust law. Competitors of Ticketmaster sometimes offer to charge lower service charges, or the ability for clients to keep more of the service charges for themselves. Competitors include Etix.com, Tickets.com, Vendini, Inc, and America Online. TicketWeb, a Ticketmaster subsidiary also offers lower fees. These companies are typically excluded from primary ticket sales for major-league sports events in the U.S., but do facilitate ticket resale for such events. In some cases Ticketmaster's dominant position means competitors are actually more expensive. Ticketmaster is the primary ticket seller for 27 of the 30 NHL teams and 28 of 30 NBA teams. In 2005, Major League Baseball acquired Ticketmaster rival Tickets.com. Some analysts expect MLB to stop using Ticketmaster for the sale of its approximately 100,000,000 baseball tickets per year once current contracts with Ticketmaster have expired. Also of concern to the company is declining sales in the highly profitable concert business. Off by double-digit percentages in 2005 from 2004, the summer concert season is a major profit center for the company with its high per-ticket prices and accompanying high service fees. In September 2003, Ticketmaster announced plans to sell tickets in Internet auctions, which will bring the price of tickets closer to market prices. This will help the agency determine demand for a given event and more effectively compete with ticket resellers. [1] Privacy The company's use of personal information is more aggressive than most: a term that users wishing to purchase from their website must agree to is to receive Ticketmaster marketing: "By completing this registration form you indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster sharing your email address and other information with those who provide the event, and that you consent to those who provide the event using your information to contact you by email or other means to send you marketing or other messages or using or disclosing your information in other ways. By completing this registration form, you also indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster contacting you by email or other means to send you marketing or other messages and using and disclosing the information you submit, as described in the Ticketmaster Privacy Policy." This term is actually somewhat less aggressive than previously, following criticism [2] [3] [4] [5], and accusations of spamming. However, users of the site automatically receive a regular "My Account" email, which comes with the notice "By signing up to Ticketmaster you agreed to receive this email. If you do not want to receive it, you can edit your preferences on the site". In other words, Ticketmaster deliberately does not allow users to opt-out at signup from unwanted email in order to increase the audience for its marketing, and the unsubscribe procedure requires the user to login to a web page: there is no simple unsubscribe link or email unsubscribe. More recently, Ticketmaster.com customers have complained about being enrolled with no consent for the Entertainment Rewards program of sister company entertainment.com. Customers complain that despite explicitly refusing offers made to them while buying tickets through Ticketmaster.com, a $9 a month charge began to appear on their monthly statements. Customers also complain that these charges continue to accure month to month and that Ticketmaster is unresponsive in stopping or removing these charges. If the allegations are true, Ticketmaster has not only shared personally identifying information to a sister company without consent, but also transmitted credit card information without consent. Whereas aggressively sharing information for marketing may be considered bad netiquette and in the extreme could give rise to civil liability, unauthorized charges to credit cards can potentially be criminal. This hasn't been proven, but the allegations are far more serious than older complaints of aggressive marketing via email. External links Information about Entertainment Rewards Scam Ticketmaster USA Ticketmaster UK Ticketmaster Canada Ticketmaster Australia Ticketmaster Mexico A review of TicketMaster's website Recent Claims of Entertainment.com "scam" Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticketmaster" Categories: IAC/InterActiveCorp | Online retail companies of the United States | Companies based in Los Angeles County