Live Nation Seals Ticketing Deal With SMG

By Ray Waddell, NashvilleLive Nation's launch of its ticketing business at third-party venues has received a boost after it entered into a strategic alliance with Philadelphia-based facility operator SMG for venues across North America.The alliance allows Live Nation to enter into an exclusive agreement to sell tickets at North American facilities controlled by SMG. The first tickets will transition to Live Nation Ticketing in late 2009 and are expected to ramp up to an estimated 5 million tickets annually by 2011 as SMG's current ticketing contracts, most of which are with Ticketmaster, expire. Live Nation says the total tickets included in the deal amount to approximately 25 million over the term of the agreement.In January 2009, Live Nation Ticketing will launch as a full service, in-house ticketing company to manage Live Nation's ticketing gateway, LiveNation.com, and as a ticketing alternative for venues outside its own large venue network. The new ticketing platform will allow Live Nation to control customer data, create enhanced ticket-based concert products and capitalize on expanded distribution channels and sponsorship opportunities.In its very first year of operation, Live Nation Ticketing expects to handle more than 10 million tickets for Live Nation venues alone. Those numbers are expected to grow annually to approximately 13 million by 2010 as tickets from Live Nation's House of Blues venues become available to the company. The incremental tickets included in the SMG deal represent an estimated 25% annual increase in the 13 million tickets Live Nation Ticketing already expects to service from Live Nation venues across North America.