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Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger challenged

Valerie | 11 Jun 2009, 09:24

Paul Sakuma, AP

A planned $700m (£428.5m) merger between ticket agency Ticketmaster and promoter Live Nation has been referred to the UK’s Competition Commission by the Office Of Fair Trading (OFT), the Times reports.

The OFT commented that it believes “ there is a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition resulting from the proposed merger”, which could leave music-goers facing a raw deal on ticket prices by forcing another major ticketing firm, CTS Eventim, out of the market.

The proposed tie-up of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, if approved by regulators, would combine the country’s largest ticketing company with the nation’s biggest concert promoter, effectively creating one of the world’s most powerful music groups.  Live Nation not only operates the majority of concert venues, but also manages many of the artists who play in them.

Since the the $2.5 billion all-stock deal was announced in February, there has been fierce backlash from critics, ranging from angry independent concert promoters to frustrated music fans who believe that the merger will “deny those attending live music events the benefits of more competition in the distribution of tickets, which could include lower overall prices.“ 

In addition, rivals worry that the merged company will favour the company’s own acts, venues and promotion company and shut out competing concert halls, managers and promoters.

Jerry Mickelson, co-owner of concert promoter Jam Productions summed up this sentiment:

“They’ll be the concert promoter, the ticketing company, the merchandise company, the agent, the manager — they’ll be everything. It would be one-stop shopping. What’s an act need me for?“

Speaking to Time magazine, Ticketmaster Entertainment boss Irving Azoff defended the proposal, arguing that critics are missing the point of the merger: that it would produce greater efficiencies in the music business, which theoretically would benefit ticket buyers and artists. He said:

“Forty percent of the tickets to music events go unsold. The goal of this [combined] company is to better market and bring third parties to help us fill some of those unsold seats.“

The chief executive of Live Nation, Michael Rapino, meanwhile argued that “these economic times require bold, fast action to innovate and grow.“

The Times observes that the deal is being closely watched by some of the world’s biggest music artists, as the music industry increasingly turns to live music to better engage with music fans and boost revenues.

When television, computer games and poetry converge: creating opportunity from the downturn

Valerie | 10 Jun 2009, 07:13

C&binet comment: Phil Birchenall on the importance of creativity in a downturn

Phil Birchenall is Project Director at The White Room, a creative economy consultancy that researches, innovates, and manages projects for clients in the private and public sectors.

The White Room was commissioned by Northwest Vision and Media at the end of 2008 to develop a unique skills exchange programme, DMEX (the Digital Media Exchange), which connects senior talent from the North West’s television sector into the fast-growing digital media industry. Through the scheme we facilitate placement opportunities for TV professionals, embedding them into digital businesses to share skills, knowledge and expertise.

Running alongside the placements, we’ve established ‘DMEX Labs’ - a collaborative production model, setting live digital project briefs to teams of volunteers from the pool of TV talent involved in the scheme.

The most recent DMEX Labs production is a wonderful example of collaboration and convergence - bringing a diverse team together on a project that collides television, computer games and poetry. We established quite an unusual brief to make a machinima film based on Carol-Ann Duffy’s ‘Education for Leisure’ poem - a piece set during the Eighties recession. Machinima is a growing genre that combines the graphic engines used in computer games with narrative storytelling.

A team of six set to work on the film, including scriptwriters, editors, and directors - most with high-level careers in the industry. We then brought in an executive producer (the originator of the Machinima term, no less!) to guide the team. None of the team had worked together before, nor did they have any experience in working on solely digital productions. The majority of the work was done remotely with the team using collaborative tools such as Huddle and Skype to communicate, which again was a completely new working practice for them.

The film debuted online at the end of May and received fantastic reviews from the international Machinima community.

We think the end results are great and you can really see the film-making expertise of the team in the final cut. However, it’s the process as much the product that is of real value here. Collaborative partnerships were formed; new skills and workflows developed; mindsets were challenged.

Under more peaceful economic conditions perhaps such an innovative piece of creative content might not be made. Certainly, getting individuals to commit to a time-intensive and non-commercial project like this wouldn’t be possible if they had their pre-downturn workload. If you’re familiar with the poem you’ll appreciate this poignant nuance.

We are undoubtedly in difficult times, and the creative sector is by no means immune to the impacts of the global economic downturn. But the opportunity, especially for a sector defined by innovation, is in using the time to challenge, to change, and be really creative.

Watch the video of ‘Education for Leisure’ by following this link.

Google and Digg reverse economics and power of advertising

Valerie | 09 Jun 2009, 12:49

In an interesting article published on the Guardian Media website, American media pundit Jeff Jarvis argues that the Internet is challenging the traditional advertising paradigm by putting power in the hands of consumers:

“Selling scarcity in advertising - limited time, space, or eyeballs - is outmoded now that we have a medium that creates an abundance of connections with people; that enables relationships instead of mere messaging. The internet changes the means and motives of marketing in ways we are only beginning to witness”.

Jarvis goes onto talk about the changing nature of journalism and advertising, with content generated not just by journalists but also readers, citing the launch of social media news site Digg’s new advertising platform, Digg Ads and the move by German newspaper Bild to offer user-generated advertising as examples of the direction we are heading in.

Described by Techcrunch as a “self service advertising product”, Digg Adds enables users to vote on ads by ‘digging’ or ‘burying’ the ad. The more an ad is dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay. Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system.  Google, Jarvis argues, similarly rewards success with ads rising in priority on search-result pages based on the number of times it is clicked. The implication of this democratic approach is that “customers end up setting the prices - implicitly on Google, explicitly on Digg”.

Bild, the most-read newspaper in Germany, recently turned to “user-generated advertising”, not only as a tool with which to produce its own ads, but also as a service that it has made available to marketers and brands. It follows its move to create a “nation of reader reporters” earlier this year by recruiting the public to become involved in the news creation process, using Bild-branded cameras to record video footage that can be sent directly to the newspaper.

Jarvis believes this trend is the “future - and natural state - of media; collaboration not just in content creation, but now in advertising as well”, envisioning a scenario in which products themselves become the advertising and customers become the ad agency, dictating their own terms. What it means for marketers is that more than ever before, they will need to build real, sustainable brand equity to achieve success in this new age where user generated content is king.

Innovation the biggest draw at E3 2009

Valerie | 08 Jun 2009, 08:34

Despite the credit crunch and global financial uncertainty, the gaming industry appears to be in good health if last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 was anything to go by.

The BBC reports that the gaming industry’s most significant trade event saw a return to form, after it was scaled back in 2007.  More than 30,000 people descended on Los Angeles for the three-day event where game makers rubbed shoulders with industry analysts, retailers and media to showcase the latest innovations in entertainment hardware and software.

Opening the event, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr unveiled a new video game to be released on the Microsoft Xbox 360 console that allows music fans to play along to their favourite Beatles songs. Their presence added additional clout to an event that also included star studded appearances from Steven Spielberg, Pele, James Cameron and Mickey Rourke, with the announcement of joint projects with Cameron and Spielberg illustrating the increasing convergence of the worlds of gaming, film and music.

Despite high-profile efforts to appeal to novice players, the Wall Street Journal observed that the video-game industry remains more focused than ever on pleasing its core crowd of existing customers with fast-paced, difficult-to-play shooter titles.

The biggest news came from the three big console manufacturers who announced new ways to get players interacting with their games consoles , kicking off what has been called the “controller wars”.

At its press conference on Monday, Microsoft landed some early buzz with its unveiling of “ProjectNatal,“ a video camera that captures a player’s movements to control a game - thus eliminating the need for a separate game controller. Demonstrated by c&binet ambassador and Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux, the Telegraph described it as “a seminal moment not just in video games, but in technology too”.

Sony meanwhile also demonstrated its new motion-control technology using handheld controls similar to those on the Nintendo Wii, with Sony Computer Entertainment America boss Jack Tretton confirming that devices would be available on the market by next spring. In addition, it confirmed the industry’s “worst kept secret”, a new handheld gaming device called the PSP Go, which is 50 percent smaller than the existing PSP.

Not to be beaten, Nintendo offered users a modified Wii controller, called the Wii Motion Plus, which was announced last year, and a pulse measuring device called the Wii Vitality Sensor.  However, even the announcement of new Metroid and Super Mario Galaxy games failed to live up to the high expectations of the gaming industry, with many finding the Nintendo press conference a low key event, suggesting that rivals are rising to the challenge with their own innovations.

But it was on the show floor where you could really sense an upturn in people’s mood from previous shows, the Telegraph reported, with publishers and developers recognising that innovation is the key to survival.

Commenting on the industry reception to the conference, Colin Sebastian, a video-game analyst with Lazard Capital Markets said:

“This is an industry that continues to push innovation to drive growth. But the core gamer is still the stable customer base here. Publishers and platform companies would be ill-advised to abandon that market.“

Piers Harding-Rolls, Screen Digest analyst added:

“We saw a lot of good tech demos, which is a shot in the arm for the games industry and gets both publishers and developers excited about the future.”

E3, stripped of the glitz and glamour of previous events, “revealed an industry bullish in the face of economic problems and confident enough in its own vision to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries”.  With filmmakers and musicians alike now looking to video games for inspiration and to bring cross platform technologies to life, the future of all these creative industries are perhaps now more intertwined than ever before and events such as the c&binet forum will provide a timely opportunity to discuss ways to ensure their future prosperity.

New Culture Secretary appointed in Cabinet reshuffle

Valerie | 05 Jun 2009, 15:52

The DCMS can confirm that following today’s cabinet reshuffle, Ben Bradshaw has been appointed as the new Culture Secretary, replacing Andy Burnham, who has been appointed Health Secretary. For a full list of cabinet members and ministerial appointments, please visit the Number 10 website.

DCMS can also confirm that the Government has today created a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whose key role will be to build Britain’s capabilities to compete in the global economy.  Created by merging BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform) and DIUS (Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills), the new department will continue to work closely with the DCMS on the forthcoming c&binet forum for the global creative industries.

Peter Molyneux promoted to Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios

Valerie | 05 Jun 2009, 12:36

C&binet ambassador and head of Microsoft’s Lionhead Studios Peter Molyneux OBE has been promoted to a new role overseeing all future creative projects in Europe for the Microsoft Games Studio.

According to gamesindustry.biz, as Creative Director, Molyneux will “oversee both creative output from internal studios such as Rare as well as Microsoft’s third party development partners, acting in a leadership role to help ideas come to fruition”. 

Molyneux said he hopes to help foster the passion of individuals and address preconceived ideas about game design by striving for innovation. Earlier this week at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Molyneux’s demonstration of Milo, a virtual boy who can respond to movement, speech and tone of voice was rapturously received by the gaming industry, praised by The Telegraph as “a seminal moment not just in video games, but in technology too”.

With over 20 years of experience with games such as Populous, Syndicate, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, Black & White and Fable to his name, Microsoft said Molyneux “will bring a unique set of skills and an in-depth understanding of the games development process to this newly created role”.