Owner of Ticketmaster nation live isn’t the only gig giant that’s seen a huge increase in income in the first quarter of 2023.
Based in Munich CTS Eventim announced on Thursday May 18 that its revenues had skyrocketed 163% year over year in the first three months of 2023, driven by increased ticket sales and its live events segment.
The consolidated turnover of the company €366.2 million (USD $392.93 million) compares to €139.2 million at the same time a year earlier, and €282.7 million in the first quarter of 2019, the last comparable quarter before the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted live events worldwide. The latest results mark a 29.5% increase compared to Q1 2019.
The company’s ticketing segment generated €148.3 million ($159.12 million) of turnover, i.e. an increase of 93.9% compared to Q1 2022, and an increase of 43% compared to Q1 2019.
The live entertainment segment saw its revenues climb to €223.8 million ($240.13 million), an augmentation of 244% from the same period a year earlier, when many concert halls in Europe were still closed due to the pandemic. Compared to Q1 2019, the latest figures represent a 22.8% increase.
The company’s normalized EBITDA was €76.0 million ($81.54 million), at the top 221% in the same quarter a year ago.
CTS Eventim sold 18 million online tickets in the first quarter, up 58% year over year of 11 million tickets sold out a year earlier. Ticketing revenue increased 42% year over year.
At Ticketmaster, its 145 million ticket sales in Q1 2023 represented 30% year over year increase, but ticket revenue increased 41% upper ($677.7 million for the quarter), indicating that the company is making more revenue per ticket than a year earlier.
Overall, Ticketmaster’s owner, Live Nation total reported income of $3.1 billion for Q1 2023, a 73% year over year increase.
CTS Eventim is present in ticketing in 19 European countries, North America, Brazil and Israel, but its main market is Germany, where it manages the most visited online ticket sales sitein front of Ticketmaster.
The company is co-owned and operated a number of venues across Europe, including Waldbuhne in Berlin, Lanxess Arena in Cologne, KB Hallen in Copenhagen and the Hammersmith Apollo in London.
“The results show that live entertainment remains as popular as ever.”
Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CTS Eventim
“In the first quarter of 2023, CTS Eventim maintained its successful trajectory following the record year of 2022,” CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg said in a statement.
“The results show that live entertainment remains as popular as ever…Both in Germany and internationally, we are pursuing organic growth and expect our business performance to continue on the right track.”
CTS Eventim launched an extension of its live entertainment segment in the Asian market in 2021, launching Eventim Live Asia in partnership with Jason Miller, former SVP for Asia at Live Nation.
That same year, the company’s ticketing division set one’s sights into the lucrative North American market – the largest ticketing market in the world – with the launch of its eventim.com website.
The goal of the North American expansion was “to establish an alternative to dominant suppliers in the United States and Canada,” the company said at the time.
The company did not provide a breakdown of the numbers for its Asia and North America operations in its Thursday release. Full first quarter results will be available on May 24.
All euro to dollar conversions have been made using the EUR-USD quarterly average figure for the first quarter of 2023, as identified by the European Central BankThe music industry around the world