Phillip Kemp

Reporter, The Donal MacIntyre Show, BBC 5 live

Fans buying concert tickets online have to compete with professional touts As a big Peter Kay fan, Andy Sinclair was keen to get hold of tickets for the comedian's first tour in seven years when they went on sale at the end of last year. "I set myself up that morning to purchase some tickets for me and my friends and logged on with two computers to make sure I had a good chance of getting some," he said. "I tried every option of dates and seating positions to get tickets, and I tried for nearly an hour and couldn't get any." But while Andy failed to buy any tickets at their face value, within the hour he found them being resold on so-called secondary ticket websites at vastly inflated prices. With or without us, they're still out there in the marketplace

GetMeIn's Andrew Blachman on online touts "I was quite unhappy to be honest," he said. "It's obvious that something somewhere is wrong with the way these companies are working." Websites like GetMeIn, Viagogo and Seatwave market themselves as fan-to-fan ticket exchanges, where fans can sell on tickets to events they can no longer attend. But an increasing number of frustrated event-goers believe these sites are also encouraging the growth of online ticket-touting. It is something that, up to now, the industry has been reluctant to discuss. Online touts But Andrew Blachman, general manager of TicketMaster's secondary ticket sales website, GetMeIn, has admitted to the BBC that a large proportion of its sales are made by touts. "It's a roughly even split for most events on our site. There's people we think are frequent sellers in the marketplace, and then those who sell on a one-off 'can't go to the event' basis, or (someone who) buys a couple of extra tickets to fund their own experience" he told BBC 5 live's Donal MacIntyre programme. The manager of the Arctic Monkeys condemned the resale of charity tickets Seatwave told the BBC roughly 60% of the tickets on its website were listed by what it called 'consumer sellers', which it described as people who had never sold before or who had only sold a small number of tickets. But Mr Blachman argued that Ticketmaster's GetMeIn site had helped to clear up some of the touts' shadier practices. "With or without us, they're still out there in the marketplace," he said. "What we do is we guarantee the transactions and we make sure the consumers who use the site to buy tickets get what they are promised." In GetMeIn's case, the parent company TicketMaster is often profiting twice from the sale and resale of the same ticket. It takes 20% of the amount that the final buyer pays. Not everyone in show business is comfortable with the market in secondary ticket sales. 'Terribly wrong' The Arctic Monkeys' manager Ian McAndrew told 5 live he condemned the re-sale of dozens of tickets for the band's concert in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust in March, some of which are selling for nearly 10 times their face value. "I think it's terribly wrong, it's terribly unreasonable, it's terribly unfair," he said. "Clearly the artist and all those people involved who are working hard to put on these events would obviously like to feel that all the income generated through the sale of the tickets whether it be through the primary or secondary market go towards the charity. "I don't believe sadly that's the case." DONAL MACINTYRE ON BBC 5 LIVE Subscribe to the podcast Email the programme donal@bbc.co.uk Follow the Donal MacIntyre Programme on Facebook The Teenage Cancer Trust said it had worked hard to establish a ticket sales system that ensured fans could purchase tickets through official channels where prices were set fairly. It said it urges individuals not to buy tickets if their only intention is to resell them. GetMeIn, Seatwave and Viagogo each donate a proportion of their fee from the resale of the charity's tickets to the trust. But that does not go far enough Mr McAndrew, who said he feared the growth of the secondary ticketing market could make concerts unaffordable for many fans. "I think it's a practice that needs to be stopped," he said. "It's one that needs to be regulated but at the moment there is no regulation." The government conducted a consultation on ticket touting in 2009 but it concluded earlier this year that it had no plans to legislate. It said it preferred the industry to take its own measures to ensure the public receives the best possible service but would not rule out taking action if the industry failed to do this. Listen to the full report on the Donal MacIntyre programme on BBC 5 live on Sunday, 21 March at 19.30 GMT. You can also download the free podcast or listen via the BBC iPlayer. You can contact the programme by emailing donal@bbc.co.uk.



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