LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Live Nation announced the results from a record-breaking 3rd fiscal quarter, with revenue topping $6.2 billion, up by more than 60% from the same period in the last pre-pandemic 3rd quarter in 2019.
According to Live Nation, the company saw operating income rise to $506 million, up by 95% year-over-year with all divisions up at least 60% during the period. Live Nation’s AOI was up 45% to $621 million, with all divisions up at least 25%, the company said.
“As we expected, our performance this quarter was led by our concert business, which held 11 thousand concerts for 44 million fans across nearly 50 countries. As a result, we generated over $5 billion of revenue and $281 million of AOI for the quarter, up 67% and 44% respectively, relative to Q3 2019. Shows of all types continue having strong demand, with double-digit attendance growth across all venue types including clubs, theaters, amphitheaters, arenas, stadiums and festivals. Stadiums had a particularly strong quarter with our fan count more than tripling to nearly nine million fans, driven by the global demand to see top acts across a number of genres and audiences such as Bad Bunny, The Weeknd and Red Hot Chili Peppers,” said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino in the company’s quarterly earnings release.
During Q3 2022, Live Nation reported Ticketmaster’s highest ever gross transaction value, with transactions for $6.7 billion 71 million tickets, up 69% and 42% respectively, relative to Q3 2019.
“Globally, new venue clients continue to seek out Ticketmaster’s services due to the effectiveness of our enterprise software platform driving venue revenue, combined with our leading online marketplace. As a result, we have contracted 19 million net new tickets so far this year on a global basis. Finally on Ticketmaster, a point on some recent press regarding ticketing fees. We will continue to advocate for fee transparency in live event ticketing. We advocated for the all-in pricing mandate passed in New York earlier this year, which requires face-value prices and fees to be shown upfront – and we support the FTC mandating this nationally. We operate ticketing marketplaces in more than 30 countries around the world and have seen all-in pricing adopted successfully in many countries when mandated across the board. This only works if all ticketing marketplaces adopt together, so that consumers truly can accurately compare as they shop for ticket,” Rapino said.
Live Nation’s sponsorship business also enjoyed a strong post-COVID rebound in Q3, with the division recording its best-ever quarter. According to Live Nation, the sponsorship division, supported by tailwinds from festivals and online partnerships, generated AOI of $226 million, 56% higher than Q3 2019.
“Festival sponsorship has been our largest growth driver on-site to date, as we have effectively leveraged record festival attendance this year and compounded this growth with double-digit increases in per fan sponsorship. Platform integrations have been our greatest growth driver with online partnerships, as we continue to drive value and monetize opportunities via Ticketmaster’s purchase process, with non-service fee revenues up double-digits relative to 2019,” Rapino said.
Looking ahead, Live Nation continues to expect favorable performance for the remainder of 2022.
“Clearly 2022 has been an incredible year of returning to live events, and we expect it to finish strong. Ticket sales for concerts this year were up 34% for the quarter, and now stand at over 115 million tickets sold for shows this year, up 37% from this point in 2019.
More importantly, momentum is strong with early signs pointing to continued growth in 2023 across our businesses. Ticket sales for shows in 2023 are pacing even stronger than they were heading into 2022, up double-digits year-over-year, excluding sales from rescheduled shows. In our sponsorship business, confirmed commitments are up 30% from this time last year, showing the resiliency and long-term commitments that brands have for our business,” Rapino said.
