Live Nation Entertainment Inc (LYV) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone. My name is Hector, and I will be your conference operator on today's call. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Live Nation Entertainment's Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Following management's prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. Instructions will be given at that time. Before we begin, Live Nation has asked me to remind you that this afternoon's call will contain certain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ, including statements related to the company's anticipated financial performance, business prospects, new developments and similar matters. Please refer to Live Nation's SEC filings, including the risk factors and cautionary statements included in the company's most recent filings on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K for a description of risks and uncertainties that could impact the actual results. Live Nation will also refer to some non-GAAP measures on this call.

今天是個好日子。我叫赫克托，我將擔任今天電話會議的會議接線生。現在，我歡迎大家參加 Live Nation Entertainment 的 2021 年第三季財報電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。在管理階層準備好發言後，我們將開始問答環節。屆時將給予指示。在我們開始之前，Live Nation 請我提醒您，今天下午的電話會議將包含某些前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果有所不同，包括與公司預期財務業績、業務前景相關的陳述、新進展及類似事項。請參閱Live Nation 向SEC 提交的文件，包括該公司最新提交的10-K、10-Q 和8-K 表格中包含的風險因素和警示聲明，以了解可能影響實際結果的風險和不確定性的描述。 Live Nation 也將在本次電話會議上提及一些非 GAAP 衡量標準。

In accordance with the SEC Regulation G, Live Nation has provided definitions of these measures and a full reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures in their earnings release or website supplement, which also contains other financial or statistical information to be discussed on this call. The release, reconciliation and website supplement can be found under the Financial Information section on Live Nation's website at investors.livenationentertainment.com. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment. Please go ahead, sir.

根據 SEC G 條例，Live Nation 在其收益發布或網站補充中提供了這些措施的定義以及與最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的全面協調，其中還包含本次電話會議將討論的其他財務或統計信息。發布、對帳和網站補充可在 Live Nation 網站 Investors.livenationentertainment.com 的財務資訊部分找到。現在我很高興將會議交給 Live Nation Entertainment 總裁兼執行長 Michael Rapino。請繼續，先生。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Live Music roared back over the past quarter, driving all our business segments to positive AOI for the first time in 2 years, with company-wide AOI of $306 million. The 2021 summer concert season rebounded quickly with 17 million fans attending our shows in the quarter as our return to live reflected tremendous pent-up demand. Festivals were a large part of our return to live this summer, with many of our festivals selling out in record time and overall ticket sales for major festivals was up 10% versus 2019. And we had a number of our tours already sell over 500,000 tickets for tours this year, including sellout tours by Harry Styles, Chris Stapleton and others. In addition to increasing attendance, strong demand also enabled improving pricing with average amphitheater and major festival pricing up double digits relative to 2019. And at our shows, fans spent at record levels, with on-site spending per fan up over 20% in both amphitheaters and festivals compared to 2019.

下午好，感謝您加入我們。現場音樂在上個季度強勢回歸，推動我們所有業務部門兩年來首次實現 AOI 正值，全公司 AOI 達到 3.06 億美元。 2021 年夏季音樂會季迅速反彈，本季有 1700 萬粉絲觀看了我們的演出，因為我們的回歸反映了巨大的被壓抑的需求。音樂節是我們今年夏天重返現場的重要組成部分，許多音樂節的門票都以創紀錄的速度售罄，主要音樂節的整體門票銷量比2019 年增長了10%。我們的許多巡演門票已售出超過50 萬張今年的巡演，包括 Harry Styles、Chris Stapleton 等人的巡演門票全部售完。除了入場人數增加之外，強勁的需求還推動了定價的提高，露天劇場和大型節日的平均定價較2019 年上漲了兩位數。在我們的演出中，粉絲的支出達到了創紀錄的水平，每個粉絲的現場支出在這兩個國家都增長了20% 以上。與 2019 年相比，露天劇場和節日。

We delivered these results with an operating environment that required us to ramp up quickly, institute new health and safety protocols and staff our frontline in a tight labor market. On the health and safety front, we set the industry standard by requiring proof of vaccine or testing for our shows with no change in fan purchase behavior. More importantly, our protocols proved effective at mitigating major COVID disruptions to our business in the U.S. and U.K. and allowed us to work in conjunction with local health officials to mitigate transmission risks from our events.

我們在這樣的營運環境中取得了這些成果，這要求我們快速發展，制定新的健康和安全協議，並在緊張的勞動力市場中為第一線人員配備人員。在健康和安全方面，我們透過要求提供疫苗證明或對我們的節目進行測試來製定行業標準，而粉絲的購買行為不會改變。更重要的是，事實證明，我們的協議可以有效減輕新冠疫情對我們在美國和英國業務的重大干擾，並使我們能夠與當地衛生官員合作，降低我們活動造成的傳播風險。

On the labor front, we were able to set staffing requirements for our peak outdoor season without any show disruptions. We also saw strong fan demand in our Ticketmaster results. We delivered its highest AOI quarter ever. Q3 was Ticketmaster's fourth highest fee-bearing GTV quarter excluding refunds, led by sports leagues restarting and concert on sales for 2022 wrapping up. In addition, Ticketmaster's secondary business delivered its highest GTV month in September, showing continued growth in this segment even as artists and content owners continue shifting more of the value to primary sales. And as the fans came back, so did our brand partners, who continue to seek to connect to the live music fan. As a result, our sponsorship and advertising business delivered over $100 million in AOI for the quarter, the first time at this level since Q3 of 2019. The return of sponsorship and advertising has been largely driven by historic major partners, along with the addition of new brands, including Truly Hard Seltzer as well as Coinbase and Solana in the FinTech segment.

在勞動力方面，我們能夠在沒有任何演出中斷的情況下為戶外高峰季節設定人員配備要求。我們也在 Ticketmaster 的結果中看到了強勁的粉絲需求。我們提供了有史以來最高的 AOI 季度。第三季度是 Ticketmaster 付費 GTV 季度（不包括退款）第四高的季度，其中體育聯賽重新啟動以及 2022 年音樂會銷售結束。此外，Ticketmaster 的二級業務在 9 月實現了最高的 GTV 月度，表明儘管藝術家和內容所有者繼續將更多價值轉移到一級銷售，但該細分市場仍在持續成長。隨著粉絲的回歸，我們的品牌合作夥伴也回歸了，他們繼續尋求與現場音樂粉絲建立聯繫。因此，我們的贊助和廣告業務本季的AOI 收入超過1 億美元，這是自2019 年第三季以來首次達到這一水平。贊助和廣告的回歸主要是由歷史性主要合作夥伴推動的，此外還有新品牌，包括金融科技領域的 Truly Hard Seltzer 以及 Coinbase 和 Solana。

As we look forward to 2022, we are encouraged by all our leading indicators across each business. Through October, our confirmed show count across amphitheaters, arenas, stadium shows is up double digits relative to the point in 2019 for 2020 shows. And to mid-October, we have already sold 22 million tickets for our shows in 2022. And demand has been stronger than ever for many of these on sales, with 1 million tickets sold for each of the Coldplay and Red Hot Chili Pepper tours, and several other tours already selling over 500,000 tickets. Ticketmaster's on sale for 2022 also reinforces this demand, as we expect Q4 transacted fee-bearing GTV to be at record level, even after already selling 65 million fee-bearing tickets for events next year.

展望 2022 年，我們對各業務的所有領先指標感到鼓舞。截至 10 月，我們確認的 2020 年露天劇場、競技場、體育場演出數量較 2019 年增加了兩位數。到 10 月中旬，我們已經售出 2022 年演出的 2200 萬張門票。其中許多門票的銷售需求比以往任何時候都強勁，酷玩樂隊和紅辣椒巡演的門票均售出 100 萬張，以及其他幾個旅遊團的門票已售出超過50 萬張。 Ticketmaster 2022 年的發售也強化了這一需求，因為我們預計第四季度的收費 GTV 交易量將達到創紀錄水平，即使明年已經售出 6500 萬張活動收費門票。

Ticketmaster has also added clients representing over 14 million net new fee-bearing tickets so far this year, further accelerating its growth on a global basis. And our sponsorship and advertising business had similar success, this confirmed pipeline for 2022 up double digits relative to this time in 2019 for 2020. But at the same time, we are continuing our cost focus well over $200 million in structural savings from our pre-pandemic 2020 plan, making us more nimble and better positioned to invest for future growth. As we get close to turning the page on 2021, I remain more convinced than ever in the power and potential of live entertainment and the strength of our position.

今年迄今為止，Ticketmaster 還新增了超過 1,400 萬張淨新收費票的客戶，進一步加速了全球的成長。我們的贊助和廣告業務也取得了類似的成功，這確認了2022 年的管道比2019 年同期增長了兩位數，2020 年。但與此同時，我們繼續關注成本，從我們的前期計劃中節省了2 億美元以上的結構性成本。2020 年大流行計劃，使我們能夠更加靈活、更有能力為未來成長進行投資。隨著 2021 年即將翻過新的一頁，我仍然比以往任何時候都更加相信現場娛樂的力量和潛力以及我們的地位優勢。

No industry was more impacted by the pandemic over the last 2 years and no industry has so proven the durability of its demand in the face of such disruption. I fully expect we will continue to have bumps in the road in the coming months, and it will take some time for international artists to be touring on a truly global basis, but the fundamental strength of live entertainment and Live Nation has proven out, and expect we will only continue to grow from here. With that, I will let Joe take you through more details on our results.

在過去的兩年裡，沒有一個產業受到這場流行病的影響更大，也沒有一個產業在面對這種破壞時如此證明了其需求的持久性。我完全預計我們在未來幾個月的道路上將繼續遇到坎坷，國際藝術家需要一些時間才能進行真正的全球巡演，但現場娛樂和 Live Nation 的基本實力已經得到證明，並且預計我們只會從這裡繼續增長。接下來，我將讓 Joe 向您介紹有關我們結果的更多詳細資訊。

Thanks, Michael, and good afternoon, everyone. Before getting into the detail in each business, a few points of context for the quarter. First, this is primarily a U.S. and U.K. driven quarter. These markets accounted for 95% of our fans in Q3 versus 75% in Q3 of 2019. And they represented 90% of fee-bearing GTV in Q3 versus 80% in Q3 of 2019. Second, our concerts activity primarily ramped up in August, with 90% of our attendance for shows occurring in August and September.

謝謝邁克爾，大家下午好。在詳細介紹每項業務之前，先介紹一下該季度的一些背景。首先，這主要是美國和英國驅動的季度。這些市場在第三季占我們粉絲的95%，而2019 年第三季為75%。它們佔第三季付費GTV 的90%，而2019 年第三季為80%。其次，我們的演唱會活動主要在8 月增加，我們 90% 的演出出席率是在 8 月和 9 月舉行。

Let me now go into more detail on the divisions. First, concerts. As Michael noted, pricing and on-site spending was up for both our amphitheaters and our major festivals in the U.S. and U.K. With almost 1,200 amphitheater shows played off, these shows give us the best data set for comparing to 2019. So I'll give you more detail on trends for these shows. And in general, the same trends also hold for our festivals. On pricing, average ticket pricing at our amphitheaters was up 17% to $63. There are 2 primary drivers to this. First, ticket pricing, including more platinum and VIP tickets for shows this year, increased average ticket pricing by $7.

現在讓我更詳細地介紹一下這些部門。首先，音樂會。正如邁克爾指出的那樣，我們的露天劇場以及美國和英國的主要節日的定價和現場支出都有所上升。近1,200 場露天劇場演出為我們提供了與2019 年相比的最佳數據集。所以我會為您提供有關這些節目趨勢的更多詳細資訊。總的來說，我們的節日也有同樣的趨勢。在定價方面，我們的露天劇場的平均票價上漲了 17%，達到 63 美元。這有兩個主要驅動因素。首先，票價，包括今年演出更多的白金票和 VIP 票，平均票價增加了 7 美元。

Secondly, our concert week promotion and other promotions were smaller scale this year, which had an impact of $2 per ticket. And for on-site spending, average fan spending was up 25% to $36. This growth came from a combination of more orders per fan, more items per order and higher average spend per order. Many of our fans shifted to buying higher-priced products, which was part of our higher spend per order. And the shift to cashless also helped, as card transactions have historically been larger than cash transactions and this has held up as we shifted to 100% cashless.

其次，今年我們的音樂會週促銷和其他促銷活動規模較小，每張票的影響為 2 美元。對於現場支出，粉絲平均支出增加了 25%，達到 36 美元。這種增長來自於每個粉絲更多的訂單、每個訂單更多的商品以及每個訂單的平均支出更高。我們的許多粉絲轉向購買價格較高的產品，這是我們每筆訂單支出較高的一部分。轉向無現金的轉變也有所幫助，因為卡交易歷來都大於現金交易，隨著我們轉向 100% 無現金，這一點也得到了保持。

Finally, operating costs, including labor costs, were up. These higher labor costs are driven by several factors: fewer shows per building, our accelerated ramp-up to open the buildings this summer, new health and safety protocols and a generally tightened labor market. At the same time, as noted with increased average ticket price and higher on-site spending, we increased the contribution margin per fan and did so to such a level that our profitability per fan, net of operating expenses, rose double digits.

最後，包括勞動成本在內的營運成本上升。勞動成本上升是由幾個因素造成的：每棟大樓的演出減少、我們今年夏天加速開放大樓、新的健康和安全協議以及勞動力市場普遍收緊。同時，隨著平均票價的上漲和現場支出的增加，我們提高了每位粉絲的貢獻利潤，並達到了這樣的水平，即我們的每位粉絲的盈利能力（扣除運營費用）增長了兩位數。

Turning now to Ticketmaster. As Michael said, Ticketmaster had a record AOI of $172 million for the quarter, driven by its fourth highest fee-bearing GTV quarter excluding refunds, and lower cost structure from its reorganization, along with lower ramp-up labor costs as we accelerated activity faster than the return of staff. Primary ticketing was driven substantially by concerts, which accounted for over 70% of fee-bearing GTV, while sports was the second largest category. And together, they represented approximately 90% of all fee-bearing GTV.

現在轉向 Ticketmaster。正如邁克爾所說，Ticketmaster 本季的AOI 達到創紀錄的1.72 億美元，這得益於其第四高收費GTV 季度（不包括退款）、重組帶來的成本結構降低以及隨著我們加快活動速度而降低的勞動成本比員工的回歸。主要票務主要由音樂會推動，佔付費 GTV 的 70% 以上，而體育是第二大類別。它們合計約佔所有付費 GTV 的 90%。

Geographically, North America accounted for 80% of fee-bearing GTV as activity remained limited internationally outside the U.K. In secondary ticketing, we similarly saw concerts and sports account for over 90% of fee-bearing GTV, though in this case, sports was the primary driver with the launch of new football and basketball seasons. Another contributor to our growth in ticketing is the continued signing of new clients, with over 14 million net new fee-bearing tickets added this year through the third quarter. These new client additions have been particularly strong internationally, accounting for 2/3 of our new client tickets.

從地理上看，北美佔收費GTV 的80%，因為英國以外的國際活動仍然有限。在二級票務中，我們同樣看到音樂會和體育賽事佔收費GTV 的90% 以上，儘管在本例中，運動是最主要的新足球和籃球賽季啟動的主要推動力。票務業務成長的另一個貢獻者是新客戶的持續簽約，今年截至第三季淨新增付費門票超過 1,400 萬張。這些新增客戶在國際上尤其強勁，占我們新客戶數量的 2/3。

Finally, sponsorship. Sponsorship AOI surpassed $100 million in the quarter for the first time in 2 years, as it again had available ad units at scale, both on-site and online. Like our other businesses, it was largely U.S. and U.K. driven, together accounting for approximately 90% of total activity. And as activity resumed, we were also able to engage new sponsors, adding 8 new strategic sponsors in the quarter. As we look to Q4, we see a continuation of the same trends we had in Q3. With concerts, we expect North America and the U.K. to continue ramping toward historical activity levels, while the rest of Europe and other international markets have limited activity given the lead time to plan concerts.

最後是贊助。本季贊助 AOI 兩年來首次超過 1 億美元，因為它再次擁有大規模的現場和線上廣告單元。與我們的其他業務一樣，它主要由美國和英國推動，總計約佔總活動的 90%。隨著活動恢復，我們也能夠吸引新的贊助商，在本季增加了 8 家新的策略贊助商。當我們展望第四季時，我們看到第三季相同趨勢的延續。就音樂會而言，我們預計北美和英國將繼續向歷史活動水平攀升，而歐洲其他地區和其他國際市場的活動則因計劃音樂會的準備時間而有限。

With Ticketing, we expect a broader recovery as most European markets put stadium and arena tours on sale in Q4, enabling GTV levels that could approach Q4 2019 levels despite 65 million fee-bearing tickets already being sold for 2022 events. And while Q4 is typically a seasonally slower period for sponsorship, it too should benefit from concerts and ticketing sales ramping up.

對於票務業務，我們預計將出現更廣泛的復甦，因為大多數歐洲市場將在第四季度開始銷售體育場和競技場之旅，使GTV 水平可能接近2019 年第四季度的水平，儘管2022 年賽事的付費門票已售出6500 萬張。雖然第四季通常是贊助季節性放緩的時期，但它也應該受益於音樂會和門票銷售的增加。

Let us now turn to our cash and cost management. We had free cash of $1.7 billion at the end of the quarter, which includes $450 million earmarked for the OCESA acquisition. This was our first quarter since 2019 where our cash contribution margin was higher than our cash burn, contributing a net $166 million in free cash. We also added $850 million in cash in the quarter through our $400 million drawdown of our Term A loan, and $450 million equity raise for OCESA mentioned previously. We then had free cash reduced by $370 million, largely resulting from long-term deferred revenue shifting into short-term for shows next summer, as we previously indicated would be happening. This improved cash position was also helped by our ongoing cost and cash management program, as this year we expect to reduce costs by $900 million and cash spend by $1.5 billion relative to pre-pandemic plans and on the cash side, excluding OCESA. As we prepare for 2022 plans, we remain confident that we have structurally reduced our operating costs by $200 million relative to our pre-pandemic 2020 plans.

現在讓我們轉向現金和成本管理。截至本季末，我們擁有 17 億美元的自由現金，其中包括專門用於收購 OCESA 的 4.5 億美元。這是自 2019 年以來我們第一個季度的現金貢獻率高於現金消耗，淨貢獻了 1.66 億美元的自由現金。我們還透過提取 4 億美元的 A 期貸款以及先前提到的 OCESA 股權融資 4.5 億美元，在本季增加了 8.5 億美元的現金。然後，我們的自由現金減少了 3.7 億美元，這主要是由於長期遞延收入轉變為明年夏天演出的短期收入，正如我們之前指出的那樣。現金狀況的改善也得益於我們正在進行的成本和現金管理計劃，因為今年我們預計相對於大流行前計劃和現金方面（不包括OCESA），將成本減少9 億美元，現金支出減少15 億美元。在我們準備 2022 年計劃時，我們仍然相信，相對於大流行前的 2020 年計劃，我們已經結構性地減少了 2 億美元的營運成本。

A few other balance sheet items. Our deferred revenue at the end of the quarter was $1.9 billion. This is compared to $950 million at the end of Q3 of 2019, which gives us the best like-for-like view of the demand pipeline already in place. And then a reminder on our debt that we continue with our liquidity covenants until we report Q4 this year, at which point we switch to a more traditional leverage test. Given our current liquidity and expected Q4 and 2022 activity levels, we do not anticipate any covenant issues through next year, and expect to continue investing in growth. With that, let me open the call for questions. Operator?

其他一些資​​產負債表項目。本季末我們的遞延營收為 19 億美元。與 2019 年第三季末的 9.5 億美元相比，這為我們提供了現有需求管道的最佳類似視圖。然後提醒我們的債務，我們將繼續履行流動性契約，直到我們報告今年第四季的報告，屆時我們將轉向更傳統的槓桿測試。鑑於我們目前的流動性以及預期第四季和 2022 年的活動水平，我們預計明年不會出現任何契約問題，並預計將繼續投資於成長。接下來，讓我開始提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from the line of David Karnovsky with JPMorgan.

我們的第一個問題來自大衛·卡諾夫斯基（David Karnovsky）與摩根大通（JPMorgan）的對話。

As you've returned to [tours at] scale, what have you found about operating with a reduced cost structure? And how do you think about expense growth from here relative to pre-pandemic, where I think you've noted you were just kind of less focused as an organization on driving cost efficiencies? And then just a second question. How are you thinking about labor constraints as you ramp towards this huge wave of supply coming in 2022? Are there any concerns about finding enough road or venue crews? And then to the extent costs do move up, who bears that? Is that Live as the promoter, or is that kind of going to be artists?

當您恢復大規模[旅遊]時，您對降低成本結構的營運有何發現？您如何看待相對於大流行前的費用成長？我認為您已經注意到，作為一個組織，您不太注重提高成本效率？然後是第二個問題。在迎接 2022 年即將到來的巨大供應浪潮時，您如何看待勞動力限制？對於尋找足夠的道路或場館工作人員是否有任何顧慮？那麼，如果成本確實上漲，誰來承擔？是Live作為發起人，還是身為藝人？

Sure. Just on operating with the reduced cost structure, we had the benefit, if you will, of really 0 basing our cost structure over the past 1.5 years. So -- and we've talked through at various points a lot of it around Ticketmaster's globalization and how we revised our approach on the concert side. So we're not seeing any issues in terms of operating with this renewed cost structure because it's been a pretty methodical laid out approach to how we want to run the business. And then I think as we move forward and we continue to grow the business, our expectations is that the incremental profitability of our business is as good or better than it's ever been, and that there continues to be a long runway to do so.

當然。在過去 1.5 年裡，我們的成本結構在降低成本結構的基礎上實現了真正的 0 效益（如果您願意的話）。因此，我們已經在各個方面討論了有關 Ticketmaster 全球化的內容以及我們如何修改音樂會方面的方法。因此，我們在使用這種新的成本結構進行營運方面沒有看到任何問題，因為對於我們想要如何經營業務來說，這是一種非常有條理的方法。然後我認為，隨著我們前進並繼續發展業務，我們的期望是我們業務的增量盈利能力與以往一樣好或更好，並且仍然有很長的路要走。

In terms of the labor constraint as we talked, we were able to put on all of our shows this year without any issues. Looking forward to next year, at the end, it probably -- we don't think that there's any issue in terms of getting back to the level of activity that we've had or the level of activity that we're talking about in terms of our pipeline of shows. Ultimately, that is what the short-term constraint is in terms of why we won't be doing 45 mega tours, why you can't have 80% growth in a given year does have to do with some of the short-term ability to get your buses or to get your staff. But there's no long-term constraints for the growth, and we're still able to grow it in next year. In terms of the costs incurred, it's different pieces for different folks. The artist is generally responsible for their crew and their operations that their being out on the road, and we're responsible for the venues that we operate.

就我們所說的勞動力限製而言，我們今年能夠毫無問題地舉辦所有演出。展望明年，最後，我們認為回到我們已經擁有的活動水平或我們正在談論的活動水平方面可能不存在任何問題。就我們的演出流程而言。最終，這就是為什麼我們不會進行 45 場大型巡演的短期限制，為什麼在某一年你不能實現 80% 的增長，這確實與一些短期能力有關搭乘巴士或搭乘工作人員。但成長沒有長期限制，明年我們仍然能夠成長。就產生的成本而言，對於不同的人來說是不同的。藝術家通常對他們的工作人員和他們在路上的運營負責，而我們對我們運營的場地負責。

And just to add texture to that, I mean, we would have absolutely in July or August, with the idea that we had to instantly hire 20,000 people for summer amphitheaters that usually would happen way back in April. We would have had concern, but we surprisingly were able to fully staff all of those jobs. As Joe said, marginal cost increased a few million dollars. So we did see that the part-time seasonal workforce that needed to come back to help kind of make the machine work, were eager to get back. So we didn't have that challenge. I think we're going to keep looking at how we do a better job of attracting and retaining them in today's environment, but we don't see that as a cost challenge. We think it's an exciting category. So a lot of people like coming to work at the amphitheater, the club, the theater, the lifestyle-type job. And as Joe said, we have no supply chain issues. The artist gets on stage, there's plenty of trucks, lights, staging, et cetera, to make the machine work on a global basis.

為了增加質感，我的意思是，我們絕對會在 7 月或 8 月進行，我們必須立即為夏季露天劇場僱用 20,000 名員工，而這通常會在 4 月發生。我們本來會擔心，但令人驚訝的是我們能夠為所有這些工作配備充足的人員。正如喬所說，邊際成本增加了幾百萬美元。因此，我們確實看到需要回來幫助機器運轉的兼職季節性勞動力渴望回來。所以我們沒有這個挑戰。我認為我們將繼續研究如何在當今的環境中更好地吸引和留住他們，但我們不認為這是一個成本挑戰。我們認為這是一個令人興奮的類別。所以很多人喜歡來露天劇場、俱樂部、劇場工作，這種生活方式型的工作。正如喬所說，我們沒有供應鏈問題。藝術家登上舞台，有大量的卡車、燈光、舞台等等，使機器在全球範圍內工作。

Our next question comes from the line of Brandon Ross with LightShed Partners.

我們的下一個問題來自 LightShed Partners 的 Brandon Ross。

Just you talked about your quarter and how the return to live has been predominantly in the U.S. and U.K. Wondering if you could give an update on when -- I know it's a big world out there, but when we can expect the rest of the world to get back to those 2019 levels and beyond that we've seen in the U.S. and the U.K.? And then I have a follow-up.

剛才您談到了您所在的季度，以及美國和英國的恢復情況如何。想知道您是否可以提供有關何時的最新信息——我知道外面的世界很大，但我們什麼時候可以期待世界其他地區的情況回到 2019 年的水平並超越我們在美國和英國看到的水平？然後我有一個後續行動。

I'll jump in and then Joe can jump. We had a global call yesterday this week with all of our different presidents. We're feeling very confident. Obviously Canada, U.S., U.K. are fully open. Europe will be fully open by the end of the year. So we'll have most of the main markets open into January. Pacific Rim, Latin America, all looks positive in terms of being open fully for international artists by April. So we think internationally, on a global basis by April, the world will be moving around again. Doesn't overly affect our business short term, because most of the outdoor stadium festival business is summertime. So that will be all fully up and rolling. We have Lollapalooza starting in April and Latin America and Australia festivals. So we think we'll be open for prime season and we'll be rolling around indoors in the main markets of U.S., Europe, Canada and the U.K. between now and April.

我跳進去，然後喬就可以跳了。本週昨天我們與所有不同的總統舉行了全球電話會議。我們感覺非常有信心。顯然加拿大、美國、英國是完全開放的。歐洲將在今年底全面開放。因此，我們將讓大部分主要市場開放到一月。環太平洋地區、拉丁美洲地區都在四月向國際藝術家全面開放方面看起來很積極。因此，我們認為，到四月份，在全球範圍內，世界將再次運作。短期內不會對我們的業務造成太大影響，因為戶外體育場節日業務大部分是在夏季。這樣一切都將完全啟動並滾動。我們從四月開始舉辦 Lollapalooza 音樂節，還有拉丁美洲和澳洲的音樂節。因此，我們認為我們將在黃金季節開放，從現在到四月，我們將在美國、歐洲、加拿大和英國的主要市場進行室內活動。

Great. And I wanted to focus a little on your O&O business. You talked about that prime season starting in April. And you extended your AMP season and festival season this year as the summer got off to a late start. Do you plan on keeping that summer season extended going forward? Is that a way for you to own more of the fans?

偉大的。我想重點關注你們的 O&O 業務。您談到了從四月開始的黃金季節。由於夏季開始較晚，今年您延長了 AMP 季節和節日季節。您打算繼續延長夏季嗎？這是你獲得更多粉絲的一種方式嗎？

Yes, it's a great point, right? You just force yourself in this last 2 years to think differently and extract more value from your base. And we absolutely look at it now and see, especially in most of Southern America, we can stay open much longer than we historically have. So yes, we will look to extend the season in those markets for sure.

是的，這是一個很好的觀點，對吧？你只需在過去的兩年裡強迫自己以不同的方式思考並從你的基礎中獲得更多價值。我們現在絕對會看到，特別是在南美洲的大部分地區，我們可以比歷史上保持開放的時間更長。所以，是的，我們肯定會尋求延長這些市場的產季。

Great. And then Michael, I saw in your socials that you invested in some new international venues. Can you maybe explain to us what your new venue strategy is going forward, what you're trying to accomplish and in what parts of the world?

偉大的。然後邁克爾，我在你的社交活動中看到你投資了一些新的國際場館。您能否向我們解釋一下您的新場館策略正在推進，您想要實現什麼目標以及在世界哪些地區？

Yes. I always think we kind of underestimate bragging about our venue portfolio. We already are well over 200 venues that we operate somewhere in the world, amphitheaters, theaters, clubs, arenas in Dublin, Poland, et cetera. So we know that the venue when we go vertical is a high-margin business for us. And I consider festivals almost venues, because you get to own the real estate for the weekend, you're owning all the revenue streams. So any time that we can put a show in our festival or our venue on ticketed by Ticketmasters, have our sponsorship able to use the asset and count all the revenue streams, it's our highest-margin business. What we've seen over time now is in the last 5 years, is there's been a new real estate boom around the world where every major city in the world looks at live entertainment much like they used to look at movie theaters, as being this incredible tenant in their development.

是的。我一直認為我們有點低估了對我們場館組合的吹噓。我們已經在世界各地經營超過 200 個場館，包括圓形劇場、劇院、俱樂部、都柏林、波蘭的競技場等。所以我們知道，當我們垂直發展時，場館對我們來說是一項高利潤的業務。我認為節日幾乎是場館，因為你可以擁有週末的房地產，你擁有所有的收入來源。因此，只要我們能夠在我們的音樂節或場館中舉辦由 Ticketmasters 售票的演出，讓我們的贊助商能夠使用該資產併計算所有收入流，這就是我們利潤率最高的業務。隨著時間的推移，我們在過去五年中看到的是，世界各地出現了新的房地產熱潮，世界上每個主要城市都像以前看電影院一樣看待現場娛樂節目，因為他們的發展令人難以置信的租戶。

So we are talking ongoing to multiple developers around the world who are building something and they want a 2,000-seat, a 5,000 seat, a 7,000 seat, maybe an arena, as an anchor into 1 of their developments. So we've really ramped up that division over the last 2 years, and we see great opportunity around the world to continue to expand our venue portfolio in these prime markets. I mean, Austin is an example where there's no arena. We're going to open that arena in the next couple of years. It's going to be a monster of a return for us as a great single venue in the Austin market right now for live shows to complement our club, our theater, our amphitheater portfolio. So we'll continue to be very opportunistic in the markets around the world where there's an opening for a live venue of any size.

因此，我們正在與世界各地正在建造一些東西的多個開發商進行交談，他們想要一個2,000 個座位、一個5,000 個座位、一個7,000 個座位，也許是一個競技場，作為他們的一個開發項目的錨點。因此，在過去的兩年裡，我們確實加強了該部門的實力，我們看到了世界各地的巨大機會，可以繼續擴大我們在這些主要市場的場館投資組合。我的意思是，奧斯汀就是一個沒有競技場的例子。我們將在未來幾年內開放競技場。作為目前奧斯汀市場上一個很棒的單一現場表演場地，這對我們來說將是巨大的回報，以補充我們的俱樂部、劇院和露天劇場的組合。因此，我們將繼續在世界各地的市場上抓住機會，那裡有任何規模的現場場地。

Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的史蒂芬‧拉斯奇克 (Stephen Laszczyk)。

I appreciate all the detail you provided on the pricing and spending trends in the quarter. I was just wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit more about how durable you think those trends will be into next year, especially now that you have the vantage point of seeing these trends play out across an entire summer concert slate? And then now that we're getting closer to 2022 and the slates taking more shape, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the cadence of shows that you expect in 2022 and how that might compare to a normal year?

我感謝您提供的有關本季度定價和支出趨勢的所有詳細資訊。我只是想知道你是否可以多談談你認為這些趨勢明年會持續多久，特別是現在你有機會看到這些趨勢在整個夏季音樂會上發揮作用？現在，我們已經越來越接近 2022 年，而且計劃也越來越成形，我想知道您是否可以談談您預計 2022 年的演出節奏以及與正常年份相比如何？

Sure. This is Joe. I'll start. On the pricing and the per caps, I think we believe this is structurally a level of spend that we're seeing from the consumer now on the pricing, heavily driven by the front of the house, the best seats, where we've long known there's this arbitrage because of the size and continued growth of the secondary market even as we've been pricing and moving more money to the artists over the past several years. So this year, that trend continued, more VIP, more platinum tickets getting that money to the artist. And we're seeing a relatively strong inelasticity on the demand for those best tickets.

當然。這是喬。我開始吧。關於定價和人均上限，我認為我們認為這在結構上是我們現在從消費者那裡看到的定價支出水平，很大程度上是由我們長期關注的前廳、最好的座位所驅動的。眾所周知，由於二級市場的規模和持續增長，存在這種套利，儘管我們在過去幾年中一直在定價並將更多資金轉移給藝術家。所以今年，這種趨勢仍在繼續，更多的 VIP、更多的白金門票讓藝術家得到了這筆錢。我們發現這些最佳門票的需求缺乏彈性。

And then on the on-site, I think because we're seeing it come from a number of fronts, we're confident that it's staying. So we talked about it in the comments, right, moving from cash to cashless. It just opens up increased spend. It's been a long existing difference between those 2, moving to 100% cashless just raises the average because instead of being half of each. And then we're seeing, again, structural trends. People are going to a bit higher quality in terms of some of the alcohol, some of our product offerings are making more of a deal for people to take higher price point products.

然後在現場，我認為因為我們看到它來自多個方面，所以我們有信心它會留下來。所以我們在評論中討論了從現金到無現金的轉變。它只會增加支出。這兩者之間長期以來存在差異，轉向 100% 無現金只會提高平均水平，因為而不是各自的一半。然後我們再次看到結構性趨勢。人們對某些酒精的品質要求更高，我們的一些產品為人們購買更高價位的產品提供了更多的優惠。

So all of those, we think, are a continuation of the trends that we've seen over the past several years and have no reason to expect that, that would be any different going forward. In terms of the cadence for shows next year, in general, and Michael talked about this a bit, you'll see similar where Q2 and Q3 will continue to be our strongest quarters. That's when we'll have a great stadium next year. Looks to be far and away the largest stadium year we've had. That will be primarily in those Q2, Q3 outdoor months. Obviously, our amphitheater and festivals, largely those months. And even the arena, certainly here in the U.S., you just have more avails in those months because of the timing of the sports season. So there's no reason not to expect similar seasonality in general as we've had historically.

因此，我們認為，所有這些都是我們過去幾年所看到的趨勢的延續，沒有理由期望未來會有任何不同。就明年的演出節奏而言，總的來說，邁克爾談到了這一點，您會看到類似的情況，第二季和第三季將繼續是我們最強勁的季度。明年我們就會有一個很棒的體育場。看起來這無疑是我們有史以來最大的體育場年。這將主要發生在第二季、第三季的戶外月份。顯然，我們的露天劇場和節日，主要是那幾個月。即使是競技場，當然在美國，由於體育賽季的時間安排，你在這幾個月裡也會有更多的好處。因此，沒有理由不期待與歷史上類似的季節性變化。

Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Glagola with Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自史蒂芬·格拉戈拉和考恩的對話。

Joe, on the Ticketing segment, you had another great quarter. Margins were at 46% on AOI. I know you said prior, the Q2's 40% margin shouldn't be extrapolated. And I know you love talking about margins. But just wanted to see if you had an update on that mid-single-digit margin expansion that you talked about prior on an annualized basis. Is that still how we should be thinking about the ticketing business coming out of the pandemic? Or are we talking about something higher than that now?

喬，在票務部門，您又度過了一個精彩的季度。 AOI 的利潤率為 46%。我知道您之前說過，不應推斷第二季 40% 的利潤率。我知道你喜歡談論利潤。但只是想看看您是否有關於您之前談到的按年化計算的中個位數利潤率擴張的最新情況。這仍然是我們該如何看待疫情後的票務業務嗎？或者我們現在正在談論比這更高的東西？

Well, I think we absolutely believe you'll continue to expect to see higher than historical margins because of the cost reductions. This year, you -- or this quarter, you've got the particular benefit of a few things, one being that we ramped up our activity faster than we ramped up our staff, as we said we were doing from our cost management. So we pushed our people and extracted more from that side. And secondly, as we also talked, this is much more of a U.S. driven and then secondly, U.K. driven. And we've talked historically about the fact that the U.S. market is a higher service fee and therefore, generally a higher margin market than internationally. So some of that mix shift will convert back next year. I don't think we're ready to give exact numbers, but we certainly do think that the ticketing margin will improve relative to historical.

嗯，我認為我們絕對相信，由於成本降低，您將繼續期望看到高於歷史水平的利潤率。今年，或者這個季度，您從一些事情中獲得了特別的好處，其中之一是我們增加活動的速度比增加員工的速度快，正如我們所說的，我們在成本管理方面正在這樣做。因此，我們推動我們的員工，並從這方面獲取更多。其次，正如我們也談到的，這更多的是美國驅動的，其次是英國驅動的。我們歷史上曾討論過這樣一個事實，即美國市場的服務費較高，因此通常是比國際市場更高的利潤率市場。因此，部分混合轉變將在明年恢復。我認為我們還沒有準備好給出確切的數字，但我們確實認為票務利潤率相對於歷史水準將會有所改善。

Our next question comes from the line of David Katz with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自大衛·卡茨和傑弗里斯的對話。

With everything going as well as it has and the numbers starting to materialize, I wanted to ask a little bit longer term like 2023? And if there's any evidence to support the trajectory continuing to move up in 2023? I think Joe, you may have used the phrase at one point, there's no air pocket out there. Any help there would be welcome.

隨著一切進展順利，數字開始實現，我想問一個更長期的問題，例如 2023 年？是否有任何證據支持 2023 年這一軌跡繼續上升？我想喬，你可能曾經用過這句話，那裡沒有氣穴。歡迎任何幫助。

Yes. I think to Joe's point, I think we said it before. The good news is '22 is going to probably be a record year. But there's only so many Fridays and Saturdays and artists are pretty smart about how they route their tours and how they look at the world and find their right positioning. So it kind of self-regulates itself. You're never going to have a bunch of tours on the same weekend piled on. So that just meant we had more inventory to spread into '22, '23, and we're talking '24 now. So I would say we have a backlog that needs to still work through the system in '22, '23, which will be incredibly strong years. And then we continue to kind of just get back to regular, as we've had over the year, double-digit growth in the live entertainment space ongoing. We project that to continue both on pricing and global volume, as demand and supply continues to grow around the world.

是的。我認為對於喬的觀點，我想我們之前已經說過了。好消息是 22 年可能會是創紀錄的一年。但周五和周六的時間有限，藝術家們對於如何安排巡迴演出、如何看待世界並找到正確的定位非常聰明。所以它可以自我調節。您永遠不會在同一個週末進行大量旅行。所以這只是意味著我們有更多的庫存可以分散到 22 年、23 年，而我們現在正在談論 24 年。所以我想說，我們有積壓的訂單需要在 22 年、23 年繼續透過系統運作，這將是非常強勁的年份。然後我們繼續恢復正常，就像我們一年來一樣，現場娛樂領域正在持續實現兩位數的成長。我們預計，隨著全球需求和供應持續成長，定價和全球銷售都將繼續保持這一趨勢。

And Michael, if I may just follow up on the prospective deal front. I think when we last spoke, activity in terms of potential acquisitions was starting to ramp up again and become more active. Any update there that's worth sharing?

邁克爾，請讓我跟進一下預期的交易。我認為當我們上次談話時，潛在收購方面的活動開始再次增加並變得更加活躍。有什麼值得分享的更新嗎？

Yes. I mean if you follow my Twitter or what we're up to, we've been pretty active and we're back with our backlog of 30-40 things around the world, we're looking at that can keep propelling our business and growing our scale. So good pipeline, we'll continue to be very aggressive at growing our global market share and then monetizing products on top of it.

是的。我的意思是，如果你關注我的 Twitter 或我們的動態，我們一直非常活躍，並且我們在全球範圍內積壓了 30-40 件事情，我們正在尋找這可以繼續推動我們的業務，擴大我們的規模。如此良好的管道，我們將繼續非常積極地擴大我們的全球市場份額，然後在此基礎上透過產品貨幣化。

Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Sundby with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞安·桑德比和威廉·布萊爾的對話。

Michael, Joe, if you look at the 14 million net new fee-bearing customers that Ticketmaster has added this year so far, what's been the primary drivers for winning that business? Are they looking for digital ticketing, was there a change in particular during COVID, and then with 2/3 of them being international it sounded like, are these exclusive ticketing partners? Any color there would be great.

Michael、Joe，如果你們看看 Ticketmaster 今年迄今新增的 1,400 萬付費客戶，你們會發現贏得該業務的主要驅動力是什麼？他們是否正在尋找數位票務，特別是在新冠疫情期間是否發生了變化，然後其中 2/3 是國際客戶，聽起來這些是獨家票務合作夥伴嗎？任何顏色都會很棒。

Sure, Ryan. As you said, 2/3 of them international, I think, is indicative of particularly in the international markets, just what a strong leadership position Ticketmaster has with a lot of the investments we've been making over the past 5 years. So digital ticketing, as you said, is -- overnight goes from being a nice feature to a critical part of it. Because you're moving away from contactless of any sort, you need a digital ticket, and our leadership there is a big differentiator. We've been investing for a long time. We're not trying to play catch-up. And these tickets are a mix of where we have the full allocation in some markets. In other markets, we have a partial allocation. But in aggregate, it's adding 14 million tickets to the portfolio.

當然，瑞安。正如您所說，我認為其中 2/3 是國際市場，尤其是在國際市場，Ticketmaster 在過去 5 年進行的大量投資中佔據了多麼強大的領導地位。因此，正如您所說，數位票務一夜之間從一個不錯的功能變成了它的關鍵部分。因為您正在擺脫任何形式的非接觸式方式，所以您需要一張數位票證，而我們在這方面的領導力是一個很大的差異化因素。我們已經投資很久了。我們並不是想追趕。這些門票是我們在某些​​市場上全額分配的門票的組合。在其他市場，我們有部分配置。但總的來說，它為投資組合增加了 1400 萬張門票。

Got it, and then just on the...

明白了，然後就...

William, I would just add, I don't want to ever forget that Ticketmaster is incredibly great at what they do on a global basis. If you want a stadium or arena, high-volume ticket business, with complex season owners and regular tickets, it's a complex business to do at scale. So a lot of our customers, sometimes we may lose a customer, they end up coming back. So one, I just want to remind you, we've been investing in this platform for the last few years. Our enterprise platform is a world-class platform. The U.S. ticket market is the most complicated market in the world. Reserved seats equal seasons seats is a complex model to manage at 10 a.m. on an on-sale with Box and all the things that pressure your system. So when -- at the core, our enterprise platform is really good.

William，我想補充一點，我不想忘記 Ticketmaster 在全球所做的事情非常出色。如果你想要一個體育場或競技場，需要大量的門票業務，並且擁有複雜的賽季所有者和定期門票，那麼規模化經營是一項複雜的業務。所以我們的許多客戶，有時我們可能會失去一個客戶，但他們最終會回來。因此，我只想提醒您，過去幾年我們一直在投資這個平台。我們的企業平台是世界一流的平台。美國門票市場是世界上最複雜的市場。預留座位均等季節座位是一個複雜的模型，需要在上午 10 點透過 Box 進行促銷，以及所有給您的系統帶來壓力的東西。因此，從本質上講，我們的企業平台確實非常好。

So when we're out competing for that offering, we end up just being ultimately winning the business because we are the best at it. And we see that because we see the clients that may leave but end up coming back because the functionality that we provide is superior to others. We're seeing this in a Brooklyn arena last week with a competitor trying to do a presale that broke, and that's the pretty basic stuff. So I'd just remind people, we are on a global basis, the best at what we do. That's why clients pick us. And then we happen to be global, and opening up all of our technology to a global base is going to be our great runway for the next while.

因此，當我們參與該產品的競賽時，我們最終會贏得業務，因為我們是這方面最擅長的。我們看到這一點是因為我們看到客戶可能會離開但最終會回來，因為我們提供的功能優於其他人。上週我們在布魯克林的一個競技場看到了這樣的情況，一位競爭對手試圖進行預售，但結果失敗了，這是非常基本的事情。所以我想提醒人們，我們在全球範圍內，在我們所做的事情上做到最好。這就是客戶選擇我們的原因。然後我們碰巧是全球化的，向全球基地開放我們所有的技術將成為我們接下來一段時間的偉大跑道。

Got it. That makes a lot of sense. And then just sequencing of this past quarter. It didn't sound like you called out a big impact from Delta here. Did you feel that at all? And did you see much of a rebound then, I guess, as you moved past that further out?

知道了。這很有意義。然後是對上個季度的排序。聽起來你並沒有宣稱達美航空在這裡產生了巨大的影響。你有這樣的感覺嗎？我想，當你進一步超越這一點時，你是否看到了很大的反彈？

Well, I think every month for us, we continue to see ongoing growth in the reopening. So it'd be hard to separate out Delta specifically versus reopening in general. But everything that we saw was more fans going to more shows, consistently contrary to some of the press that I've seen. Very low no-show rates, low to low single-digit increases in terms of no shows as a result of the pandemic. So it seems that the people that want to go to the shows are going to the shows, and that's just continued to grow as a portion of the fan base out there.

嗯，我認為對我們來說，每個月我們都會看到重新開放的持續成長。因此，很難將達美航空具體與一般重新開放區分開來。但我們看到的一切都是更多的粉絲去看更多的演出，這與我所看到的一些媒體的報導完全相反。缺席率非常低，由於大流行，缺席率出現低至低個位數的增長。所以看來想要去看演出的人都會去看演出，而且作為粉絲群的一部分，這一比例還在持續增長。

And to Joe's point, I would just add, what we also noticed is the -- it's all different genres and ages. So this isn't just young kids are going to shows because they're not scared, but the Eagles just had a wildly successful arena tour that's going to finish up this week in Seattle. The Grateful Dead were out doing full stadiums. Harry Styles obviously doing indoors to just record business as well as our amphitheater business. So we did -- we weren't sure going into the market what segment or what age demo would react differently or if there would be a difference. And we saw huge demand across the board at all ages, all demos, all markets. So strong rebound back as we've seen with the early on sales going forward.

對於喬的觀點，我想補充一點，我們也注意到——它們都是不同的流派和年齡。所以這不僅僅是小孩子們因為不害怕而去表演，而且老鷹隊剛剛進行了一次非常成功的競技場巡演，將於本週在西雅圖結束。感恩而死樂團 (Grateful Dead) 的體育場爆滿。哈里·斯泰爾斯（Harry Styles）顯然在室內做的只是為了錄製業務以及我們的露天劇場業務。所以我們就這麼做了——我們不確定進入市場後哪個細分市場或哪個年齡層的演示會做出不同的反應，或者是否會有差異。我們看到了所有年齡、所有演示、所有市場的巨大需求。正如我們在早期銷售中看到的那樣，強勁的反彈。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and this concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you all for your participation.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，問答環節已經結束，今天的會議也到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝大家的參與。