When I think
of businesses that have been crushed by the pandemic, cruise lines are the
first thing that come to mind. But concerts and live events aren't far behind.
And that's created tough times for Live
Nation, the owner of TicketMaster and the self-titled "largest live
entertainment company in the world."
Live Nation
reported tonight, and sure enough it's one of the rare results that didn't
beat estimates. The company's second-quarter revenue was down 98%, to $74
million, from $3.2 billion a year ago. But the company put the best spin
possible on the results, and Live Nation shares were down a modest
1.2% in after-hours trading. Here's CEO Michael
Rapino on
a conference call with investors tonight:
Our expectation is that live events will
return at scale in the summer of 2021, with ticket sales ramping up
in the quarters leading up to these shows. And partly, we remain confident that
fans will return to live events when it is safe to do so. Our strongest
indicator of demand is that fans are holding onto their tickets even when given
the option of a refund.
Through the end of the
second quarter, 86% of concert fans are keeping their tickets for rescheduled
shows, demonstrating their continued desire to attend concerts in the future
despite the current uncertainty.
And President Joe
Berchtold:
We've been pleasantly
surprised thus far on the progress of vaccines. Probably some of the
testing and tracing has been slower, but still now
is ramping up. ... So amongst those, I think we believe sitting
here today that the facts would say that by the beginning of the year, you're
able to put on the tickets on sale with comfort, you're going to be able to do
the shows next summer. And then for the reasons that we've talked
about, we have a high degree of comfort that the demand is going to
be there. ... So all those factors together, I think, is what gives us the
comfort.
Shares of Live Nation are
down 33% so far this year. If things go right, the company is set up to be
the ultimate re-opening act.
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