Live Nation today announced its second quarter earnings which saw its revenues grow 29% to $2.8 billion for the period ending June 30, 2017, up from $2.2 billion in the corresponding year earlier period.
At the same time, net income nearly doubled to $81.5 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, from $36.5 million in the prior corresponding quarter last year when net income was $37.75 million, or 13 cents per diluted share.
However, with a loss of $33 million in the fiscal first quarter, the company’s six-month results show net income of $48.5 million, or 8 cents per diluted share, on revenues of $4.2 billion. Likewise, the company lost money last year in the first quarter, with 6.8 million in red ink on revenues of $3.4 billion. So overall for the first half of the year, revenue is up nearly 25%.
Getting back to just the second quarter, Live National produced operating income of $113.4 million, up 53% from $74.16 million in the year-earlier period. But after backing out depreciation and amortization and other mainly non-cash charges, the company reported $221.4 million in adjusted operating income, versus $180.9 million in the corresponding period last year.
The world’s largest concert promoter with ticketing managerial and branding concern said its on course for yet another record-breaking year. According to the earnings report, the concert business sold more than 68 million tickets to shows this year through July 12—a million more tickets than for the same period last year.
In Q2, Live Nation promoted seven thousand shows for 24 million fans, an increase of 5.5 million fans from the second quarter last year. As a result its concert business’s revenue grew by 34% to $2.25 billion, operating income increased to $37.58 million, and AOI grew by 51% to $88.6 million. Its concert business increased attendance in both the North America and international markets by over 2 million fans in each.
The company’s sponsorship and advertising similarly saw steep growth, with revenue up 31% to 124 million, operating income up 19% to $70.4 million, and AOI up 21% to $77.1 million.
Ticketmaster, Live Nation’s ticketing operation concert, saw gross transaction value (GTV) for growth on fee-bearing tickets rise 8% for the quarter, at constant currency. Year-to-date, fee-bearing GTV is up 13%, and the past three quarters and according to the report are the company’s highest transacted GTV quarters in the company's history. As a result, Ticketmaster's revenue for the quarter was up 9% to $484.6 million. Year-to-date, revenue was up 15% to $978.3 million, operating income was up 20% to $98.3 million, and AOI was up 13% $191.8 million.
The report noted Ticketmaster's inclusion of “secondary tickets to shows for which Ticketmaster is not the primary ticketer,” whichresulted in an increase in the number of listed events by 35% and 120 million users visiting the company’s online sites per month.
Ticketmaster also broke out the success of its Verified Fan product, which enables artists to “prioritize the distribution of tickets to actual fans utilizing our proprietary Ticketmaster scoring algorithm of fan behavior.” The report said Ticketmasterworked with 50 artists in the U.S. and Europe to sell over 1 million tickets to fans and reduce the amount of tickets sold on secondary sites.
The report also claimed Live Nation brings som 550 million fans in 40 countries to live events in a year— which would represent 7.3% of the earth’s population of 7.5 billion.
