Quarterly Sponsorship Revenue Rises 17% at Live Nation
Live Nation Entertainment reported a 17.4 percent increase in revenue for the first quarter, buoyed by increased ticket sales and sponsorship income.
Speaking specifically on the sponsorship segment, the company was encouraged by first quarter results, writing..
"Our Sponsorship segment continued to generate growth during the quarter due to new strategic sponsors along with the renewal and expansion of existing brands. We continued to leverage our extensive on-site and online reach, global venue distribution network, artist relationships and ticketing operations to secure long-term sponsorship agreements with major brands and continue to look for ways to expand these assets further." Live Nation primarily judges quarterly performance of the sponsorship function on two key metrics:
Revenue was up $3.6 million of 17.6% over Q1 2010 with sponsorship operating income growing $2.7 million, or 33%. The strong perforamance was indicative of the 27% increase in average dollars per sponsor in the quarter. Average revenue per sponsor during the period grew from $64,000 in Q1, 2010 to $81,000 between January and March of this year.
"We believe that our business environment is starting to improve over last year and we're encouraged with overall trends to date," said Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment. "Our healthy first quarter performance reflects improvement in ticket sales, solid growth in our Sponsorship and eCommerce segments and our focus on carefully managing our costs.
To read about Live Nation's latest sponsorship deal announced earlier this week, click here and here. #NEWSTAG
