Record 20m tickets sold boosts strong 2018 for Vivendi

Vivendi's various ticketing platforms, which now include the Netherlands' Paylogic, turned over €58m last year, adding to recorded music success for UMG

By Jon Chapple on 18 Feb 2019

There were 280 shows at the Paris Olympia in 2018

image © L'Olympia

Vivendi Village, the Vivendi business unit which includes the French media giant’s live entertainment and ticketing holdings, grew turnover 12.6%, to €123 million, in 2018, amid a strong year for the group as a whole.

Vivendi Village includes Vivendi Ticketing – See Tickets (UK and US), Digitick and Paylogic – live event producers Vivendi Talents&Live and Olympia Production, and several music venues and festivals in France and Africa.

Ticketing revenues were €58m, up 9.9% year on year, boosted by the acquisition of Paylogic in April 2018. In 2018, for the first time, Vivendi Ticketing sold more than 20 million tickets in the UK, continental Europe and the United States.

Ticketing revenues were €58m, up 9.9% year on year

Elsewhere, live entertainment posted revenues of €34m – a huge rise of 94.9% on 2017. Olympia Production recorded strong growth, with more than 1,100 shows by 32 music artists and comedians, as well as four regional festivals in France, including the 50,000-capacity Garorock, acquired last year.

The Olympia (1,996-cap.) in Paris also enjoyed a strong year with 280 shows, its level of activity prior to the Bataclan attack in November 2015.

Vivendi’s group revenues, meanwhile, soared to €13.9 billion, up 11.3% on 2018, with earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation climbing 33%, to €1.29bn – boosted by a huge quarter for Universal Music Group, whose revenues grew to over €6bn, €2.6bn of it from streaming alone.

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