Redbox Offers Live Event Tickets

3 Oct, 2012 By: Chris Tribbey

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Redbox announced Oct. 3 it’s now selling live event tickets for the Philadelphia market at both its kiosks and online, with plans to expand the service to the West Coast by early 2013.

While the home entertainment industry awaits the launch of Redbox Instant by Verizon — the Verizon-Coinstar joint-venture streaming service set to debut this year — the launch of live event ticket sales at kiosks and at marks a different retail chapter for the DVD rental market leader.

“For the past 10 years, Redbox has made movie rentals convenient and affordable for consumers, and now we're bringing the same access to more entertainment with Redbox Tickets,” said Redbox president Anne Saunders. “This launch brings ticketing options to consumers for a flat fee of just $1 per ticket, and gives artists, venues and inventory owners the ability to promote their events and attractions across our network of more than 650 Redbox kiosks in the Philadelphia area.”

A Redbox spokeswoman said the company plans on expanding the service to the Los Angeles market by early 2013. However, despite earlier suggestions by industry analysts, Redbox has no immediate plans to offer movie tickets as part of the Redbox Tickets program, the spokeswoman said.

Tickets for the Philadelphia Film Festival (Oct. 18 to 28), Carrie Underwood live at the Wells Fargo Center (Nov. 28), NASCAR’s Pocono 400 (June 9, 2013) and Pennsylvania 400 (Aug. 4, 2013) and Villanova Athletics sporting events are among the events consumers can buy tickets for under the new service.

Consumers can print tickets at home or pick them up at the venue, depending on the event, Redbox said.

“With the introduction of Redbox Tickets, we see Redbox becoming a new point of discovery for local events and attractions — a win for consumers, venues, inventory owners, Redbox and Redbox retail partners," said Mark Achler, SVP of new business, innovation and strategy for Redbox.

Redbox promises it will sell live event tickets at or below face value, and is collaborating with entertainment ticketing company New Era Tickets and music promotion company Sparkart at launch.

Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles, noted that the offering should cost Redbox little in the way of overhead, and that the company was wise to avoid selling movie tickets, when they’re so easily had elsewhere.

“It looks like Redbox is working with those events and venues that are not affiliated with Ticketmaster,” Wold said. “Given that this addition to the kiosk is merely a software update with no need to print the tickets, any incremental revenues and traffic to the kiosk is further leverage of those fixed assets … and is something that could actually help consumers think of the kiosks as a full-service entertainment network and not just a DVD rental kiosk.”

However, Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, cautioned that Redbox may need Ticketmaster, operated by Live Nation Entertainment, to really make the most of Redbox Tickets.

“It’s positive, but I think they will need a partnership with Live Nation to make it work nationally,” he said. “It won’t add much if they are in only two cities.”

Interestingly, Redbox's foray into live event ticketing is the not the first time a disc rental service has broached the market.

In 2008, Blockbuster — before it went into bankruptcy and was bought by Dish Network — signed a three-year deal with Live Nation to sell tickets and merchandise for Live Nation events in 500 of its video stores. Live Nation CEO Nathan Hubbard at the time said consumers who bought concert tickets offline were similar to those who rented movies offline.

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