Christopher BarrettGermany-based titans of the live music industry CTS Eventim and Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) have posted record-breaking financial results for 2022.
CTS Eventim reported a 372% year-on-year rise in consolidated revenue to €1.9 billion in 2022, up 33% on 2019. Meanwhile, DEAG has posted €325 million in 2022 revenue, up 258% on 2021, with EBITDA up 40.3% to €31m.
While Eventim attributed its record financial performance to strong growth in both its ticketing and the live entertainment segments, DEAG said its record results were driven by the post-pandemic relaunch of live entertainment, the expansion of its event pipeline and its acquisition activities including the December buyout of Scottish promoter Regular Music.
Both companies have extensive operations in Europe encompassing ticketing, venue operation and promoting. Among Berlin-based DEAG’s interests are Kilimanjaro Live, Gigantic Tickets, literary events production company Fane Productions and UK Live, while Munich-based CTS owns operations including Eventim, Ticketcorner and Ticketone, and runs several major venues in Europe including the 5,000-capacity Eventim Apollo in London.
The strong results echo the performance of the world’s biggest promoter, Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) which recorded $16.7bn in revenue in 2022, up 44% on 2019. LNE president and CFO Joe Berchtold said the company has had a “raging start” to the year, having sold almost twice as many tickets in January and February than in the same period last year.
Commenting on his company’s financial results, CTS EVENTIM CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg said, “We are delighted by the exceptional growth generated by our two main segments in their core domestic and international markets. Our Group earnings reflect the sustained and fast-growing trend that is seeing people everywhere wanting to attend live events again. The fact that we were able to significantly increase our revenue in 2022 was not a given at first because of the pandemic. Indeed, there are actually various developments that have contributed to this success, such as the growth of digital ticket sales, investment in systems-based innovations, and our global expansion strategy. We now expect to maintain this course of strong profitable growth and further improve our market position.”
DEAG CEO professor Peter L.H. Schwenkow said a rock-solid balance sheet and a consistently implemented growth strategy characterised 2022 for DEAG: “Our expansion measures, which we continued unwaveringly during the corona caesura, are bearing fruit. We will continue to move forward along this path.”