December 02, 2008

By By Ray Waddell, Nashville

Live Nation has signed a three-year deal with Blockbuster whereby the latter will be the exclusive physical retail ticket outlet for Live Nation Ticketing, Live Nation's new in-house ticketing company, beginning with the start of the 2009 concert season.

Under the agreement, Live Nation will sell its retail tickets exclusively through approximately 500 Blockbuster company-owned stores in "strategically chosen" markets across the country aligned with Live Nation's concert venue platform footprint. Live Nation says it sells some eight percent of tickets to its concerts - about one million tickets annually - through retail outlets.

Tickets will still be available at venue box offices; the deal with Blockbuster essentially replaces Ticketmaster retail outlets for Live Nation venues when Live Nation's deal with Ticketmaster expires at the end of this year.

The selected Blockbuster stores will offer exclusive blocks of tickets available during the first four hours of ticket sales, as well as general ticketing as long as supplies last. Blockbuster will be responsible for managing and operating all aspects of the ticket transactional experience.

Under the agreement, Blockbuster and Live Nation are committing promotional support, marketing assets and customer data bases to drive awareness of the new ticketing relationship. Additionally, Blockbuster and Live Nation expect to offer exclusive concert products and promotions to Blockbuster customers.

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