Live Nation Entertainment Reports Third Quarter And Nine Months 2014 Financial Results

Live Nation Entertainment released financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014.  We had a great third quarter and 2014 is on track to be another record year delivering revenue, adjusted operating income, or AOI, and free cash flow growth. For the first nine months of the year, revenue is up 9%, and AOI is up 11%, with all divisions growing both top line and AOI. We are continuing to build share in concerts and artist management and drive growth in sponsorship and ticketing. The live business continues to have a robust outlook as artists are reliant on touring as their main earnings driver and the best means to engage and connect with their fan base. The ongoing flow of new artists continues to re-energize the business as fans more than ever find the live experience, from club shows to stadiums to festivals, a top entertainment choice and the best and most unique means to celebrate their favorite artist and share the experience with fans, both on-site and online.

The connected world and mobile access allow fans to become the greatest marketing boon for artists, as our research has shown that 64% of concertgoers engage in online activities at the show, 76% of concert attendees in the U.S. who took photos or videos at a concert post them online, and all of this generates billions of earned media impressions on social media from our shows, for our artists, every year. At Live Nation, we see great continued runway ahead given the fragmented global landscape in concerts, management and ticketing and as our scale grows, we continue to drive increasing economics in our business model, with higher profits per show, more advertising and improved ticket conversion.

Concerts

Concert fan demand remains strong globally and we are continuing to grow by taking share, promoting 22 of the top 25 global tours this year including Jay-Z and Beyonce, One Direction and Luke Bryan. We are also further growing our festival portfolio and we are expecting nearly five million fans across our 65 global festivals in 2014, 8% growth from 2013. We continue to add more markets to our global footprint of promoting concerts in 40 countries, adding a partner in the Philippines this quarter. And we are getting more fans to our shows, increasing our attendance per show by 4% through the first nine months as compared to the prior year.

Artist Nation

Artist management is now operating in full gear as we have attracted a number of new managers to the group this year, and we are managing additional acts including Madonna, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj and Lil’ Wayne.

Sponsorship & Advertising

The Sponsorship & Advertising business continues to deliver strong margins and growth to drive our overall AOI. The success of our Live Nation channel at Yahoo! demonstrates the potential we have in further monetizing our concerts platform by creating compelling content that can be widely distributed and drive advertising revenue. We have now delivered over 100 continuous days of a live show a night with millions of viewers tuning in to watch.

We believe we have great growth opportunities as we improve the advertising experience for brands that want to reach the highly desirable music fan on-site and on all screens in a highly targeted fashion. Our combination of on-site touch, engaging content and data provides a unique and compelling network for advertisers.

Ticketing

Ticketmaster’s new product TM+ is working even better than our optimistic expectations of a year ago. It has been activated for over 13,000 events since its launch last September and year-on-year, as of September 2014, global secondary gross transaction value, or GTV, is up 44% year-to-date. The broad adoption of the platform by fans and teams gives us confidence that we will capture over $1 billion in resale GTV from our launch in September 2013 through the end of 2014.

As we near the end of 2014, Live Nation has never been in a stronger position. We are on track to deliver our three-year strategic plan for 2015, and have great confidence in our longer term growth opportunities as we see the global opportunities in our core businesses of concerts, sponsorship and advertising, ticketing, and artist management.

Source: Live Nation