Live events to make half of BookMyShow revenue by FY21

Online ticketing firm sharpens focus on producing and promoting non-sports entertainment, to bring this at par with movie ticketing

Online ticketing company BookMyShow (BMS) hopes to boost its non-movie ticketing business, with a sharper focus on producing and promoting live events.

The company already provides online ticketing for sports and non-sports live events. Earlier this year, it started producing non-sports live content, with Disney's Aladdin.

Currently, the movie ticketing business gives around 65 per cent of revenue. The rest comes from live event ticketing, including plays, music concerts, matches in the Indian Premier League and other sporting events.

Movie ticketing is based largely on the commission model. There is growing competition in the space, with multiplexes pushing ticket sales on their own apps. And, players like Paytm are giving cash-back offers on their portals. BMS now aims to grow the non-movie business to half its revenue by 2020-21.

"As with movie ticketing, we are in for the long haul. That is why we prefer to be promoters and producers of live events. We started with Disney's Aladdin and are preparing to get Cirque du Soleil (Montreal-based theatrical producer) to India in November," says Albert Almeida, chief operating officer of the non-movies business.

He says the live events business has potential to yield higher margins over time since the company can regulate the cost. Currently, however, the sector is grappling with challenges, making it important for companies to take a longer-term view of the business, and strategise accordingly.

"Live events (the business) has two major challenges. First, it is heavily taxed, at 28 per cent. Second, the infrastructure for live events is severely lacking. So, producers have to invest more while putting up these shows. Both these escalate costs. We're still in the phase of convincing people to pay a premium for these events, which means revenue will grow gradually," Almeida explains.

This is where brand partners become crucial, he adds. They help achieve one of two things which make economically viable BMS' operations in live events. Brand partners help raise revenue or could help mitigate cost in the case of spending on marketing and on the food and beverage (F&B) side. For Cirque, the company has so far got Citibank (presenting sponsor), PVR, Red FM, and MTDC as media partners. It is exploring for more and hopes to get a few more brands before the shows go live. It has identified four broad categories for sponsors — presenting, powered by, co-powered by and associate sponsors.

"We don't have a set number of partners in mind but know we want to associate with brands that look at long-term associations. Unlike a music event, plays and variety shows like Cirque have a longer lifespan and, so, there has to be consistent and persistent marketing effort. Word of mouth also plays a big role in this case," Almeida says.

Some categories, he elaborates, become 'natural allies' in this case. Such as BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) brands, those in the mobile telephony eco-system, automobile brands and alcohol-beverage ones. The last category could especially benefit, given the advertising restrictions on these brands, by partnering an event like Cirque which has permission to serve alcohol.

BMS is looking at three tranches of revenue for the approaching debut season of Cirque in India - ticketing, F&B and merchandise sales at the venue and brand partnerships. Ticketing is expected to contribute the lion's share at 60 per cent and the other two for 20 per cent each. The show will first be in Mumbai, followed by a stint in Delhi. The first lot of tickets went on sale a few weeks earlier; 95 per cent of the Mumbai inventory has been sold.

"More than 50 per cent of the bookings in Mumbai are by corporates and these are the higher priced tickets," reveals Almeida, adding that corporate sales also help BMS expand the range of pricing. The cheapest tickets for the show, hence, are Rs 1,250 per person, while the most expensive go up to Rs 13,500.