BEC-Tero's hopes buoyed by JV with US promoter
After slugging through a tough year in the concert business, BEC-Tero Entertainment hopes to see about 10-per-cent growth in revenue in 2015 after forming a joint venture with Los Angeles-based Live Nation Entertainment to import international concerts.
Neil Thompson, who has spent more than 22 years working in the music industry in Thailand, will lead the new company called Live Nation BEC-Tero.
Besides promoting concerts and festivals by Western artists, it will bring regional acts to Thailand, including leading K-pop and J-pop stars.
After this change, the new company will have the main responsibility of handling international concerts under the strong business connection of Live Nation Entertainment.
Thompson said that throughout this year, the company had prepared a concert line-up to entertain Thai song lovers such as Avenged Sevenfold next Tuesday, Michael Buble on January 24 and One Direction on March 14.
With this strategic partner, the company will have a chance to attract international sponsors to support the concerts in Thailand on top of the support from local sponsors, he said.
BEC-Tero Entertainment will turn its attention to promoting local concerts and producing content for television and radio and organising family events, theatre performances and exhibitions.
BEC-Tero also runs the country’s largest ticketing company, ThaiTicketMajor, as well as Qikplay.com, an online music retail and merchandising store.
Michael Rapino, president and chief executive of Live Nation Entertainment, said this represented another important step in increasing Live Nation’s global presence and ensuring it can offer fans, artists and sponsors a seamless service across the world.
Alan Ridgeway, president of international and emerging markets for Live Nation, said Thailand had been one of the strongest concert markets in Asia for a long time and it was a pleasure to welcome to the Live Nation Asia team Brian Marcar and Neil Thompson, the two people responsible for putting Thailand on the touring map.
Marcar, director and shareholder of BEC-Tero, said it had long been a leader in entertainment in Thailand and joining with Live Nation, which has an immense portfolio of artists, festivals and international tours, would offer great growth opportunities.
Live Nation operates across 10 countries in Asia and now has offices in mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
