Live Nation’s Ticketmaster division, facing increasing competition from rival ticketing companies, is planning to aggressively remake its online ticket selling options through a deal with interactive mapping company Iomedia.

Ticketmaster announced today, November 15, that it plans to incorporate Iomedia’s Virtual Venue mapping technology into branded venue and team ticket-selling Web sites that Ticketmaster powers. Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and Penn State University sports will be the first entities to rollout the technology on their sites.

Virtual Venue allows fans “to digitally preview their exact seat’s location and sightlines” and “compare sections and check time-of-day viewpoints” before they purchase tickets. Ticketmaster is not the first ticketing company to offer interactive venue maps, and in fact, Ticketmaster already offers a version of seating maps, but the Iomedia offering is an improvement over its current technology. All of Ticketmaster’s team and venue clients will be offered the Iomedia technology.

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Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Ticketmaster, said in a statement that the move is designed to not only improve consumers’ shopping experience, but also to help drive revenue for teams and venues. “In conjunction with our interactive seating maps, we are fundamentally changing the way fans buy tickets. We believe this will further enhance conversion and fan satisfaction, and increase revenue on behalf of our clients.”

While still the world’s dominant ticketing company by a wide margin, Ticketmaster is hearing the footsteps of an increasing number of ticketing company’s slowly approaching it from behind. Among the firms seeking to increase their share of the ticketing landscape are digital ticketing company Veritix, which recently secured a $100 million line of credit to capitalize its assault on the company, and Outbox Enterprises, which former Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen recently joined.

Hubbard outlined some of company’s overall plans while speaking during the recent Billboard Touring Conference, and reiterated those sentiments in separate, videotaped interview. See the video below.

“I think the biggest challenge for our industry right now is the fan experience, and protecting, enhancing, upgrading that fan experience,” Hubbard said. “What we figured out is that we have a different competitive set now than we did even 18 months ago. There are other alternatives for the consumer’s entertainment dollar than a live event.”