However, "I cannot see how it helps the customers, who increasingly rely on the convenience provided by such ticketing agencies on the Web for obtaining their tickets," he told the E-Commerce Times. "There are so many different ways that these companies now charge for their services. I cannot but help think that the premium -- i.e., service -charges will only go up." That will depend on whether Ticketmaster's sale of Paciolan and its licensing of ticketing software to AEG succeeds in creating real competition for Ticketmaster, which has an extraordinarily strong hold on the entertainment ticketing business, said Richard J. Hoskins, an antitrust partner at Schiff Hardin and a senior lecturer at Northwestern University Law School. If healthy competition is created, the merger could well have precompetitive results, he told the E-Commerce Times. "I obviously have not examined the record the way the Justice Department has, but I am cautiously optimistic that the sale and licensing provisions, combined with the 10-year period of government oversight, will result in a plus for consumers."
New Competitors Don't Stand a Chance On the other end of the opinion spectrum is Eric Karson, associate professor of marketing at Villanova School of Business. "What were the regulators thinking? Sure, selling off the software side allows for the appearance/development of competitors, but at bottom, it is all about the brand," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Let's face it, an established behemoth with a huge war chest has an edge. In the ever-increasingly important pay-per-click world, how can you bid against a giant? I have to believe that this advantage will translate into the growing mobile market as well." As the new venture gets under way, it would do well to take into account some of these fears, said Sally A. Wright, president of the Alliance Consulting Group. "Ticketmaster already has a reputation for piling on 'convenience fees' that irritate customers," she noted. "Now, despite concessions, the merger has gotten some negative press," Wright told the E-Commerce Times. "Live Nation Entertainment needs to come out of the starting gate with a strong customer-centric message and really mean it."
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2010 Media Report Villanova School of Business