The conference call is being led by John, the operator, and Amy Yong, the Head of Investor Relations, for Live Nation's third quarter 2023 earnings. CEO Michael Rapino and CFO Joe Berchtold will be speaking and discussing financial performance and business prospects. The call will include forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures, which can be found on Live Nation's website. Michael Rapino thanks everyone for joining the call.

The company's results show that the demand for concerts is growing globally, and this is leading to ongoing growth in the industry. The company will discuss this further in their investor presentation next week. The call will be kept brief due to this upcoming presentation. The company is supportive of legislative efforts to address all-in pricing and ticket bots.

The DOJ is investigating the company based on complaints from competitors, but they do not believe their business practices are unlawful. The investigation seems to be looking at specific business practices rather than the overall business model. The company is cooperating with the investigation and believes it is in the mid-stages. The timing of the news seems suspicious, but the company is still seeing strong results in their ticketing business.

Despite concerns about consumer weakness, Ticketmaster has not seen any negative trends in ticket sales. In the third quarter, they sold $90 million in fee-bearing tickets, with growth coming from both North America and internationally. In October, ticket sales were up double digits in North America, and year-on-year sales for U.S. Concerts continue to be up double digits. This indicates that there is still strong demand from fans for concerts and events.

The company is feeling optimistic about their upcoming show commitments for next year, with no signs of a decrease in on-sales. The CEO and another executive discuss the consistency in consumer demand for shows of all sizes and locations. There has been a lot of focus on the profitability of the Concert segment this quarter, with a mix shift towards stadium shows and a more matched revenue and expense structure compared to last year. The analyst asks for clarification on these dynamics and their impact on profitability for this quarter and next year.

The company has seen a year-on-year increase in Concert margins and expects a 50 basis point expansion for the full year, despite a skew towards third-party venues, particularly stadiums. In the third quarter, 47% of fans were in arenas or stadiums, accounting for 75% of the 7.5 million fans added. This drives AOI up but negatively impacts margins. The company is not worried about quarter-to-quarter fluctuations and is happy with the overall progress in margins. As the company approaches lapping the launch of significant tours by Taylor Swift and Beyonce, there are concerns about replicating their success in the upcoming year. However, the company did not promote the Taylor tour and is confident in the slate of tours for 2024.

The paragraph discusses the success of Beyonce's tour and how it contributed to Ticketmaster Live Nation's overall ticket sales. It also mentions that no one tour will significantly impact their revenue, as they have a diverse portfolio of artists and tours. The company is confident in their growth for next year and expects to have record-breaking tours. The question then shifts to non-service fee revenue and the recent Mastercard agreement, to which the company expresses excitement.

The company has been working on diversifying its payment partners and has successfully added Citibank, PayPal, and Mastercard. They are happy with this progress and expect strong growth in sponsorship. The company is also focused on adding more owned and operated venues, which is their highest profit area. Ticketing revenue exceeded expectations, with a significant portion going towards 2023 and 2024 events. Deferred revenue is up 39%, but this is not a reliable indicator of future revenue growth due to factors like venue mix and tour types for 2023 and 2024 shows.

The speaker is discussing how to use metrics to predict their outlook for 2024. They mention that they have not sold many tickets for 2024 yet, so they are focusing on show bookings instead. They have sold 18 million tickets for next year, but this is not the main driver of their Ticketmaster results for Q3. They also mention that deferred revenue is up due to selling more tickets for shows in Q4 and they expect this trend to continue for the next several months. The speaker concludes by thanking everyone and mentioning their upcoming event in New York.

This summary was generated with AI and may contain some inaccuracies.