According to a recent private survey in Australia, nearly 50 percent of Australians are not opposed to ticket resale, as long as the industry is monitored.
Australian ticket vendor Moshtix conducted the survey in response to a government initiative to examine the impact of ticket resale in Australia. In May, the government issued a report on ticket scalping and launched an online survey. Those results are expected to impact a possible rewriting of Australia’s resale laws.
Moshtix surveyed 750 respondents. More than half of the survey pool said they had bought a ticket on the secondary market before, and one-third said they had paid more than the original face value for a resold ticket.
One-third of those surveyed also said they want ticket resale regulated, with penalties for resellers. Who should do the regulating is up in the air: One in five responded that online marketplaces like StubHub should monitor and regulate themselves; while two in five said ticketing providers should be responsible.
“Ticket on-selling clearly upsets buyers with a majority of respondents claiming they’d like to see the industry either closely monitored or regulated on the issued,” Moshtix General Manager Adam McArthur said in a statement.
The survey split almost evenly on the question of whether resale prices are fair. Half said prices were fair, while 49 percent said they were overpriced.
McArthur read the results as a call for an open system with more industry responsibility.
“An overwhelming majority of respondents think that industry players should be taking more responsibility of the issue,” he said. “The majority of comments received from the survey were in favour of a system that allows genuine fans unable to attend an event to pass the ticket onto their friends first before selling the ticket back to the ticketing provider or promoter for resale.”
Public comments on the Australian government’s report on ticket resale closed Friday, July 23. Results from the online survey are expected soon.
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Just knowing that 375 out of 750 Australian ticket buyers are cool with resale is enough for me to take that huge step with my business and launch an operation down under. Thank you Ticketnews for publishing such relevant articles!
Just checking … You have got to be kidding?
Concerned Australian
750 people out of a population of 21 million?
Yes, not too representative by any stretch of the imagination. Solid statistical foundation for a new venture …. NOT!
I don’t think 750 people can really speak for a nation of Australians. Considering the survey was on Gen Y based websites, targeted at people who would pay $$$ to see their favourite band live, 750 is an incredibly inaccurate sample, wouldn’t you say?
It’s not REALLY the fans who are getting screwed over, like I said, they’re WILLING to pay, it’s the ticketing companies who take the brunt of the blame when tickets are ALLOWED to be resold at a premium on sites such as eBay and StubHub and Gumtree.
– P.
Assuming scientific sampling techniques, 750 is actually a very robust sample. The entire point of random sampling is to be able to interview a relatively small sample. One of the most trusted pollsters in the US, Gallup, publishes weekly presidential job approval ratings after surveying 1,500 Americans out of over 307 Million.
Out of a population of 21 million, a sample size of 750 means you can state with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.58 percentage points.
Statler, yes a sample is just that a section of the population from which to predict the behaviour of the whole population. BUT a representative sample!
The numbers you cite may well be accurate sample sizes, but of a *representative* sample. A sample that small would probably be stratified to ensure representativeness.
An online survey that attracts interested parties from a small portion of the population is not representative. Your misuse of sampling statistics is a worry.
“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” – Alexander Pope 1709