Live Nation Entertainment Reports Fourth Quarter And Full Year 2015 Results
Full Year 2015 – A Record Year for Live Nation
– Revenue Up 11% to $7.6 Billion at Constant Currency
– AOI Up 11% to $616 Million at Constant Currency
– Operating Income of $156 Million at Constant Currency
– Adjusted EPS of ($0.06) at Constant Currency
– Reported Revenue of $7.2 Billion, Operating Income of $131 Million, and EPS of ($0.33)
– Live Nation Concerts Record Setting Year Growing Number of Concerts by 12% and Attendance by 8% to 63 Million
– Ticketmaster Record Setting GTV Up 12% at Constant Currency; Processing a Record 530 Million Tickets Globally
– Secondary GTV Up 34% at Constant Currency
– Live Nation’s Advertising Division AOI Up 15% at Constant Currency
Live Nation Entertainment released financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2015.
2015 Record Year
2015 closed as a record year for Live Nation, driving financial and operating results. Revenue, adjusted operating income, or AOI, and free cash flow all grew 11% for the year, at constant currency, and we delivered record ticket volume of 530 million.
We continue to see the tremendous power of live events, with strong global consumer demand. Live is a truly unique entertainment form – it cannot be duplicated. It is elevated, not threatened by technology and is borderless. Fans around the world can now discover, follow, share and embrace artists, creating greater demand for live shows.
We believe the live business sector will continue to have strong growth for years to come as fans globally drive demand, artists are motivated to tour, and technology drives conversion.
Live Nation Concerts Deliver Record Year
Live Nation Concerts continued to grow its global market share, adding five million fans globally in 2015, for a total of over 63 million fans while promoting 25,000 concerts, up 12% from last year. We built on our global leadership position in every part of our business, with more fans in both North America and internationally and across our full portfolio of arenas, amphitheaters, festivals, theaters and clubs. The ongoing flow of new artists also continues to re-energize the business and in 2015, 13 of our top 20 selling artists were new from the previous year.
We see growth continuing into 2016, and through February 19th, ticket sales are up another 5% year-on-year, driven by 18% growth in amphitheaters and 47% growth in stadiums. We are confident we will again see strong growth in fan demand across our business this year.
Fans more than ever find the live experience, from club shows to stadiums, a top entertainment choice and the best way to celebrate their favorite artists and share the experience with other fans. This, combined with an ongoing shift of consumer spending towards experiences, is helping drive the structural increase in demand for concerts globally.
Live Nation’s Advertising Division Drives Growth in 2015
Our high-margin advertising business grew 17% in 2015 at constant currency, increasing both onsite and online advertising as we built our global sponsor base by 20% to almost 900 brands. Onsite advertising drove the majority of our growth for the year, as we increased advertising per fan by 8% by continuing to develop new products for sponsors at our events, along with the benefit of high growth in our festivals.
We continued leveraging video content from our concerts, generating over 300 million views in 2015 on Live Nation web and mobile apps and through our distribution partners at Yahoo, Snapchat, YouTube and Apple.
We currently expect continued advertising AOI growth at historical levels in 2016, with over 60% of our budgeted advertising for the year already sold, and pacing ahead of last year at this time by double-digit levels.
Ticketmaster Delivers Record Year
For the fifth straight year, Ticketmaster grew its ticketing volume and gross transaction value, or GTV, with GTV up 12% at constant currency. Delivering $25 billion in GTV, Ticketmaster continues to be one of the top global e-commerce sites, operating in 22 countries.
In 2015, secondary ticketing continued to be a major focus, now operating in 13 countries and delivering 34% growth in GTV for the year to $1.2 billion, at constant currency. Fans have continued to say their main goal is simply to get a ticket to the show or game they want and as a result, integrated inventory conversion was 38% higher than primary only offerings.
As we focus on improving the fan buying experience, there continues to be a rapid shift to mobile devices as the preferred purchasing platform. As of the end of 2015, over 21 million fans have downloaded one of our apps, a 37% increase over last year. This drove a 20% increase in mobile ticket sales for the year to 21% of total tickets.
Entering 2016, the Ticketmaster marketplace is better positioned than ever as the ticketing leader in 16 countries. We have grown our client base each year over the past five years, and combining the primary and secondary marketplaces has substantially increased the inventory available to fans.
We have heavily invested in online and mobile products to increase visits to our sites and conversion. As a result, already in 2016 we have had three days selling over 900,000 tickets, placing them among the top 15 days of all time, setting us up to deliver robust growth in ticket sales for the year.
2016 Growth Drivers
As I have indicated, the key leading indicators for each of our businesses are up year-on-year into February, pointing to continued strong growth in 2016. We plan on holding more concerts for more fans in more countries than ever before. We expect to sell more advertising, both onsite and online. And through continued product innovation at Ticketmaster, we plan on selling more tickets and driving increased conversion.
Over the last three years, we have grown AOI by 34% and free cash flow by 45%(1); and, we expect Live Nation to continue delivering this level of growth that we have demonstrated over the last several years. We see the global live sector continuing to be very robust from a supply and demand perspective.
Live Nation continues to be the artist’s number one choice for touring because we have an unparalleled live platform to service their concerts and drive ticket sales to their fans. Combining a growing global industry with Live Nation’s ability to grow its leadership position, we expect to continue driving long-term value for our shareholders.
Source: Live Nation
