Germany-headquartered live entertainment company and ticket seller CTS Eventim continued its strong comeback in 2023, exceeding its own forecasts with a 22.5% jump in revenue to reach a record EUR €2.359 billion (USD $2.54 billion at current exchange rates), from €1.926 billion in 2022.
The growth was fueled by robust performances in both its ticketing and live entertainment segments, showcasing a resurgent live entertainment industry.
CTS Eventim said in its preliminary 2023 results that its forecast for the full year, which had been raised in October 2023, was significantly exceeded. In the first half, the company’s revenue reached €1.021 billion, a 39% YoY increase.
The robust full-year performance was driven by a 32.5% YoY jump in revenue from its Ticketing segment to €717 million from €541 million in 2022, as well as an 18.9% YoY increase in revenue from its Live Entertainment segment to €1.677 billion from €1.41 billion.
Normalized EBITDA across the entire group increased by 31.9% YoY to €501.4 million from €380.1 million in the previous year as EBITDA from its Ticketing segment climbed 46.6% YoY to €382.4 million, while that from its Live Entertainment division was almost unchanged at €119.1 million versus €119.2 million.
The company also benefited from an income of €37.4 million that the group received as compensation paid by the German government to its joint venture autoTicket GmbH, Berlin.
The company will publish its full annual report for 2023 on March 26.
CTS Eventim says it facilitates the sale of over 300 million tickets annually through its various platforms, including physical box offices and online/mobile portals such as eventim.de, oeticket.com, ticketcorner.ch, ticketone.it, and entradas.com.
Additionally, the company owns several entities that organize concerts, tours, and festivals like Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Hurricane, Southside, and Lucca Summer.
CTS Eventim also manages some of Europe’s most renowned venues, including LANXESS Arena in Cologne, K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen, Waldbühne in Berlin, and EVENTIM Apollo in London. Nearly two months ago, the company was reported to be among the bidders to acquire See Tickets, a major UK ticketing merchant.
In late November, the EVENTIM joint venture between CTS Eventim and Sony Music Latin Iberia acquired Punto Ticket in Chile and Teleticket in Peru, for an undisclosed sum, to provide ticketing systems and related services to concert promoters and venues across Chile and Peru.
CTS Eventim’s 2023 performance is a testament of the ongoing recovery in the live entertainment industry in the wake of the post-pandemic rebound. In the first half of 2023, concert promoter, venue owner, and Ticketmaster parent Live Nation sold 117 million tickets worldwide, up 20% from 2022.
In Europe, CTS Eventim peer, Germany-based promoter DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft said in August that it is “fully on track” to achieve its full-year revenue target of over €300 million.
The pent-up concert demand after the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions led to concert-goers in the UK spending more than GBP £2 billion in 2022 ($2.47 billion at the average exchange rate for the year), the Entertainment Retailers Association said in July.
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