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BookMyShow to boost its live events

BookMyShow has said it is looking to push its live events business to bring its revenue level with its current movie ticketing vertical.

The company already provides online ticketing for sports and non-sports live events, such as Disney’s Aladdin.

As it stands, cinema tickets provide around 65 per cent of the firm’s revenue, according to the Business Standard newspaper, while the rest comes from live event ticketing, including plays, music concerts, matches in the Indian Premier League and other sporting events.

With the growing competition in the Indian movie ticketing space, BookMyShow is aiming to boost its 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,” said Albert Almeida, chief operating officer of the non-movies business, according to the Business Standard.

“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.”

He added that brand partners will be key to BookMyShow’s success in the live events business.

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