LC Paper No. CB(2)292/18-19(05) For discussion on 26 November 2018 Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs Sale of Tickets for Events Held at Venues of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department Purpose This paper briefs Members on the measures already taken by the Government in relation to the sale of tickets for events held at venues of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), and other options that can be considered for future implementation. Background 2. Recently, tickets for some pop concerts in Hong Kong were sold out quickly when they were made available for public sale. These tickets were subsequently traded in the market and at times sold at a price much higher than their original. There have been calls from the community that the Government should take appropriate actions such as requesting concert organisers to increase the proportion of tickets for public sale substantially. Some have also suggested that the Government should regulate or prohibit unauthorised profiteering activities on resale of event tickets (commonly known as “ticket scalping activities”) by means of law amendments or legislation. 3. Entertainment programmes are generally commercial activities in Hong Kong and even across the world. The content, ticket pricing, sales strategies, and channels are business decisions made by organisers who have to bear all the commercial risks. Like other commercial activities, not every production can be guaranteed a full house or a profit. The public are free to choose whether or not to buy a ticket based on their interests and ticket prices. On the other hand, with the advancement in technology and the rise of shared economy on the Internet in recent years, many online ticket resale agents have emerged and provided a convenient channel for trading of - 1 - programme tickets. Some of these agent companies have even become multinational corporations and propelled the growth of ticket resale in different countries. Some of them also sell tickets in the first-hand and second-hand markets at the same time. Although from time to time there are media reports that second-hand tickets are sold at a price lower than the original value, the potential profits from second-hand tickets have indeed attracted many people to buy tickets. As many more people are going for tickets, it becomes harder for the general public to buy tickets during public sale, and some people have to resort to the secondary market. Many places around the world are also facing the same situation. Existing measures taken 4. The Government usually does not intervene in the operation of a free market and the entertainment industry. However, unlike other places, most of the large-scale entertainment programmes staged in Hong Kong, in particular pop concerts, are not held at commercial or private venues, but in venues managed by the Government (mainly the Hong Kong Coliseum (HKC) under the LCSD). In the 2017-18 financial year, there were 29 large- scale paid entertainment programmes (including but not limited to pop concerts, stand-up comedies, and musicals) (totalling 111 performances) and 12 such programmes (totalling 22 performances) held at the HKC and the Queen Elizabeth Stadium (QES) respectively, accounting for about 69% of all events held at the HKC and about 10% at the QES. Almost all programmes were hosted by commercial entities. Furthermore, while the LCSD does not mandate hirers of designated venues to use the Urban Ticketing System (URBTIX) and a number of commercial ticketing systems as alternatives are in place in the market, most of the programme organisers would still choose to pay for the services of URBTIX to sell tickets of their paid programmes held at LCSD venues. Therefore, the Government has a role to play in both providing venues and handling ticketing arrangements. In response to public expectation of Government assistance in alleviating problems relating to ticket purchase, the Government has implemented the following measures for programmes held at LCSD venues and with their tickets sold through URBTIX – (a) Setting an upper limit on number of tickets that a patron can purchase in a single transaction and imposing a limit on the number of tickets that can be purchased with the same credit card on the first day of public sale - 2 - When handling ticketing arrangements for a programme that is expected to be more popular among the public, URBTIX will proactively discuss with the organiser to set an upper limit on the number of tickets a patron can purchase in a single transaction, and a limit on the number of tickets that can be purchased with the same credit card on the first day of public sale. With the consent of the organisers, URBTIX has set the maximum number of tickets that each patron can purchase in each transaction to four tickets only for a number of concerts when their tickets were open for sale to the public recently. Once a customer uses the same credit card to purchase tickets and the cumulative number of tickets purchased reaches the upper limit in any transactions, the use of that credit card to purchase more tickets for any other performances of the same programme will be prohibited. This measure aims to enable more people to have the opportunity to purchase tickets during public sale, and to cause greater difficulty for ticket purchasing activities by automated computer programmes (bots) or by syndicates. (b) Increasing the supply of tickets during public sale The LCSD has been encouraging programme organisers to raise the proportion of tickets available for public sale, and received positive response from most organisers. For example, 65% of the tickets had been reserved by the organiser for priority ticket booking through designated channels of 17 performances of a paid entertainment programme held in July 2018 (i.e. only 35% of the tickets were available for public sale). As the programme was later found to be very popular, the organiser then set aside only about 20% of the tickets of the subsequent nine additional shows as consignment tickets (i.e. allocated about 80% of the tickets for public sale). As a result, nearly 53% of the tickets for all 26 performances were made available for purchase by the public on the first day of public sale via URBTIX in April this year. The chance of buying a ticket available for public sale through URBTIX has thus been improved. - 3 - (c) Piloting “personalised ticketing” With the consent and co-operation of the organiser, the LCSD piloted a “personalised ticketing” cum balloting system for the first time for a non-commercial music concert held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in May this year. Throughout the process, there was close coordination from different parties for ticket sale and purchase, audience admission, and other arrangements. Around 2 000 audience arrived at the venue about three hours earlier upon request to present an identity document with a photograph for verification. (d) Increasing the transparency of ticket sale With the consent and co-operation of organisers, for programmes with tickets for sale via URBTIX and expected to be more popular, URBTIX will provide more information to the public, such as advance announcement of the commencement date of public sale, the number of shows, the number of tickets available for public sale, a seating plan with pricing zones and seats available for sale, the designated channels that organiser arranges to release relevant ticketing information, etc. (e) Enhancing the system functions of URBTIX The LCSD has been constantly discussing with the service provider of URBTIX to enhance the system functions of URBTIX (such as introducing multi-layered setting and programmes to prevent purchases by bots, increasing the number of servers and the amount of bandwidth to strengthen the system processing ability and improve network traffic, etc.) so as to ensure the smooth operation of the system and prevent online ticket purchasing activities by bots. In addition to the auto-retry access to the system every three seconds, URBTIX updates its ticket sales regularly to enhance transparency and to provide reference for customers who cannot access the webpage instantly. Also, questions that could only be solved manually had been added to the - 4 - webpage of URBTIX when the tickets of a pop concert were open for sale in October 2018, so as to enhance the prevention of purchases by bots. The LCSD will continue to evaluate measures in this regard. (f) Suspending ticket sale at outlets With the consent and cooperation of the organiser, URBTIX did not arrange any public sale at its outlets for tickets of a pop concert for the first time in September this year. Only ticket purchases online, or through a mobile application, or telephone booking hotline with a credit card were allowed. This measure helps to reduce problems of disorder caused by queuing in public places. (g) Delaying ticket collection With the consent of the organiser, URBTIX piloted for the first time the arrangement of delaying the collection of tickets sold through public sale of a pop concert in October this year. Under this arrangement, people who have made purchase would not receive their ticket immediately. They would have to collect their tickets at an URBTIX outlet or from a ticket dispensing machine within 14 days before the day of the performance with the same credit card that they used for ticket purchase. This measure can shorten the duration that a ticket can be resold and hence increases the difficulty in and the risk of profiteering on ticket resale. (h) Strengthening consumer education URBTIX has all along been appealing to the public to buy tickets through official channels to prevent loss from frauds. URBTIX also shows on its webpage the appeal message from the Anti-deception Coordination Centre of the Police that members of the public should be careful in online transactions, as well as other points to note.