Live Nation has strengthened its presence in Mexico and Brazil by forming a five-year exclusive distribution deal with CIE (Corporación Interamericana de Entretenimiento SAB de C.V.) and T4F (Time For Fun). Brazil and Mexico are the fifth and 11th most populated countries in the world; CIE is the third largest concert promoter in the world, according to Billboard statistics. CIE holds an investment in Time for Fun, which also promotes in Argentina and Chile, and CIE and T4F collectively operate in more than 25 venues in Latin and South America.
Under the new agreement, the first act to be promoted in Mexico is R.E.M. and the first act in Mexico and Brazil is Madonna, who is also expected to play in Argentina and Chile.
The exclusive deal is for international talent only; a Live Nation spokesperson told TicketNews that local promotions for local talent would not be included. Any other promoter who wanted to use the venues for its acts would have to either co-promote with Live Nation or work out some other type of deal with Live Nation.
Financials details of the contract were not disclosed, however, Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino told Billboard, “We have the biggest company in Latin America as a partner without having to buy a company and lay out a lot of capital.”
Producing live concerts that drew over 6 million music fans in 2007, CIE generated more than $1 billion in revenue and margins approaching 21 percent. CIE, which is publicly traded on the Mexican stock exchange, operates top venues and regularly promotes major concerts and operates their own ticketing platform in many important music markets including Mexico City (population 20 million), Guadalajara (population 4 million), Monterrey (population 3.8 million) and many others. CIE produces more than 85 percent of all the live concerts by international talent in Mexico, a country with a population of more than 100 million people.
T4F operates top venues in São Paolo (population 18.3 million), Buenos Aires (population 12.6 million), Lima (population 7.1 million), Rio de Janeiro (population 6 million), Santiago (population 5 million), and Porto Alegre (population 4.1 million) all of which are emerging as important new markets for international talent.
“This expansion provides us with a world class execution partner and a new revenue source to further monetize our global tours in a region where we currently have no market share,” Rapino said in a statement. “Alejandro (Kuri, chairman and CEO of CIE) and Fernando (Alterio, of T4F) have built a remarkable live music infrastructure in Latin America which will immediately allow us to expand our global distribution pipe into more than 25 new outlets and give us access to growing music markets with a total population of more than half a billion people.”
