LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess mediaWire) — Secondary ticket market companies are warily eyeing the proposed Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger and many fear that it will squeeze them out of the business entirely.
Part of the professed strategy Live nation and Ticketmaster hope to realize would be a vertical integration of the live touring segment of the market and ticket sales would be a big component of that strategy. When integrated, the two companies could offer flexible pricing for event tickets that could present challenges to the long-term viability of the secondary market.
"It's a big threat to us, because they're going to do everything they can to keep that inventory in their ecosystem and control it from its first sale to its final sale," LiveStub president Levi Bergovoy told Billboard.
Many of the players in the secondary ticket market are calling for regulators to consider the effects of the merger on the secondary market.
"I don't see how the merger in its entirety can stand up to some of the antitrust scrutiny by virtue of the fact that TicketsNow is in the equation and they're one of the leading three secondary market players," Scott Roback, VP of business development at RazorGator told Billboard "We don't think that's healthy for consumers and certainly for the ticketing space in general." – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
