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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2009

SCHUMER DEMANDS THAT TICKETMASTER SELL OFF BROKER SITE TICKETSNOW -- SAYS 'RETAIL' AND 'RESELL' OPERATIONS DON'T BELONG UNDER ONE ROOF


At Senate Hearing, Senator Asks Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff To Find Buyer For Online Reseller Site

Senator Reiterates Opposition To Ticketmaster's Proposed Merger With Live Nation

At a Senate hearing on LiveNation's proposed acquisition of Ticketmaster Tuesday, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) not only called for the merger to be rejected, but also said that Ticketmaster should immediately sell off its online reseller arm, TicketsNow. Schumer said Ticketmaster's existing business model --which combines its core retail operation with a ticket brokerage that resells the same stock of tickets at marked-up prices--is inherently anti-consumer.
 
Schumer urged TicketMaster CEO Irving Azoff, who appeared at the hearing as a witness, to immediately seek a buyer for TicketsNow, which was the No. 2 reseller behind StubHub before Ticketmaster bought it last year.
 
 "As far as I am concerned, Ticketmaster never should have gotten into the secondary ticketing business by buying TicketsNow to begin with.  And I think it needs to get out of that business, especially in light of this merger proposal," Schumer said in prepared remarks.
 
Earlier this month, Schumer announced he would oppose Ticketmaster's proposed merger with Live Nation. At that time, Schumer asserted the deal would give the new company almost complete control over concert ticket distribution, which could result in sky-high fees and fewer choices for consumers.
 
Schumer has also asked for a federal probe relating to Ticketmaster’s selling of tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s upcoming “Working on a Dream" Tour. Though Ticketmaster has since apologized for controversies that sprang up around the ticket release for that tour, the incident displayed the flaws in Ticketmaster's bid to provide consumers with tickets through face-value sales as well as at marked-up prices through its broker arm. 
 
On February 2, 2009, Ticketmaster began distributing tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s upcoming “Working on a Dream” tour at 10:00 am.  Most shows sold out within minutes, which has become the norm for Bruce Springsteen concerts. But unfortunately, Ticketmaster sent their customers to TicketsNow, its own ticket re-sell website, where scores of  tickets were available for purchase but the prices had been greatly inflated. By 10:01 am, tickets to the concert on TicketsNow were hundreds of dollars more expensive than they were on Ticketmaster just one minute prior. TicketsNow claims to offer customers who previously bought tickets the opportunity to resell them on the open market. But consumers, along with Schumer and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) have found TicketsNow and Ticketmaster’s behavior suspect. 
 

“They’ve said that this clever arrangement was caused, in part, by a ‘malfunction.’  Given what Ticketmaster stood to gain by directing consumers to its own resell site, the episode seems to be much more about money-making than about ‘malfunction,’” Schumer said at the Senate hearing Tuesday. “Ticketmaster has apologized for the incident, but to my knowledge still hasn’t provided any detail as to how this happened.  We need answers not apologies.”

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