Atrade group is pushing back on the growing U.K. presence of Beverly Hills’ ticket seller and live event promoter Live Nation Entertainment Inc.
An Aug. 27 report from the London-based Association of Independent Festivals called on the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, a governmental regulatory body, to “properly scrutinize Live Nation’s vertical integration and dominance, and the detrimental effect it has on the independent festival market.”
The request for an investigation in the United Kingdom comes as the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division reviews Live Nation’s compliance with a consent decree the company signed as part of its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster, which now operates as a unit of Live Nation.
The trade group’s report found Live Nation controls about one in four U.K. festival venues that hold more than 5,000 people.
London-based Global Media & Entertainment is the next biggest U.K. festival organizer with an 8 percent share of the market, the report said, followed by Los Angeles-headquartered Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc. at 5 percent.
The Association of Independent Festivals also found Ticketmaster runs ticketing for nearly half of the top 61 venue box offices in the United Kingdom, ranked by revenue.
Paul Reed, chief executive of Association of Independent, said in an email that his issues with Live Nation are partly due to accounts he has heard of Live Nation pressuring artists and U.K. venues into deals forcing an artist to use each of Live Nation’s available live entertainment products or be excluded from working with the company.
“It becomes increasingly difficult to book and run an independent festival when a single transnational company has a potential stranglehold on the market,” Reed wrote.
Live Nation declined to comment.
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said in an email it does not comment on whether a company is being investigated.
The body has reviewed prior Live Nation acquisitions, including approving the company’s purchase of the Isle of Wight Festival last year.
Pressure from the Competition and Markets Authority, Reed said, was partly why Live Nation announced last month it ceased its two secondary ticketing companies, Seatwave and GET ME IN!, from participating in the U.K. and other European markets.
A blog post from Live Nation last month characterized the decision to get off the secondary market in Europe as a way to fend off professional scalpers.
Pirates Beware
A Los Angeles federal judge on Sept. 12 ordered set-top box seller TickBox TV to stop selling devices that could allow consumers to stream stolen content and awarded $25 million to the plaintiff, Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.
The alliance is a powerful coalition that includes the biggest motion picture studios, largest television networks and largest streaming content providers in the United States, including Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
The alliance is not incorporated, and it has no employees or a physical office.
It has distinguished itself by doing battle with companies that rely on Kodi, a free open-source media software application that enables people to stream online content.
“The current focus is on piracy, as the alliance is just over a year old,” alliance spokesman Jolyon Kimble said in a statement, adding it is not a lobbying organization or a policy body.
Strong Growth on Film Jobs
A report from Los Angeles-based consulting firm Beacon Economics found Los Angeles County’s film and digital media job market is growing faster than in the rest of the nation.
L.A. County jobs in these fields grew 23 percent between 2011 and 2016, to 265,200 from 215,800 jobs.
The sectors saw a national growth rate of 15 percent and a 12 percent increase in New York City, the second largest market for film jobs.
The L.A. County government assisted with the Sept. 14 report.
The report looked at 32 different job categories, and an analysis shows 34,300 of the 49,600 jobs Los Angeles gained came from categories comprising the film industry.
Los Angeles now has 46 percent – or 164,000 – of the nation’s jobs classified as part of the film industry.
Los Angeles’ growth rate in film jobs alone was 21 percent, compared to a national growth rate of 18 percent.
Staff reporter Matthew Blake can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8332.
