Ticketmaster owner Live Nation isn’t the only concerts giant that saw a huge increase in revenue in Q1 2023.
Munich-headquartered CTS Eventim reported Thursday (May 18) that its revenue soared 163% YoY in the first three months of 2023, on the back of increases in both ticket sales and in its live events segment.
The company’s consolidated revenue of €366.2 million (USD $392.93 million) compares to €139.2 million in the same period a year earlier, and €282.7 million in Q1 2019, the last comparable quarter before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down live events around the world. The latest results mark a 29.5% increase over Q1 2019.
The company’s ticketing segment generated €148.3 million ($159.12 million) in revenue, an increase of 93.9% compared to Q1 2022, and an increase of 43% compared to Q1 2019.
The live entertainment segment saw revenue spike to €223.8 million ($240.13 million), an increase of 244% from the same period a year earlier, when many live venues in Europe were still closed due to the pandemic. Compared to Q1 2019, the latest numbers represent a 22.8% increase.
The company’s normalized EBITDA came in at €76.0 million ($81.54 million), up 221% on the same quarter a year ago.
CTS Eventim sold 18 million tickets online in Q1, up 58% YoY from the 11 million tickets sold a year earlier. Ticket revenues grew 42% YoY.
At Ticketmaster, its 145 million ticket sales in Q1 2023 represented a 30% YoY increase, but ticket revenues came in 41% higher ($677.7 million for the quarter), indicating that the company is taking in more revenue per ticket than a year earlier.
Overall, Ticketmaster owner Live Nation reported total revenues of $3.1 billion for Q1 2023, a 73% YoY increase.
CTS Eventim has a ticketing presence in 19 European countries, North America, Brazil and Israel, but its core market is Germany, where it runs the most-visited online ticket sales site, ahead of Ticketmaster.
The company co-owns and operates a number of venues across Europe, including Waldbuhne in Berlin, the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, K.B. 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 has 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 anticipate that our business performance will continue on its successful course.”
CTS Eventim launched an expansion of its live entertainment segment into the Asian market in 2021, launching Eventim Live Asia in partnership with Jason Miller, a former SVP for Asia at Live Nation.
That same year, the company’s ticketing division set its sights on 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 the dominant providers in the US and Canada,” the company said at the time.
The company didn’t provide a breakdown of numbers for its Asian and North American operations in its release Thursday. Full results for Q1 will be made available on May 24.
All Euro to Dollar conversions have been made using the average quarterly EUR-USD figure for Q1 2023 as identified by the European Central BankMusic Business Worldwide
