With such a merger it would be interesting to know whether there will be a reduction in the extortionate booking and posting fees applied to each ticket booked. Ticketmaster operates by making its money through the fees rather than charging the promoter commission on number of tickets sold which makes it rather attractive to promoters and smaller venues without Box Office facilities. Many companies/venues have other more "important" things in mind when arranging an event other than ticketing. They simply want the easiest way with the least hassle, again hence why Ticketmaster being very unfluencial in the entertainment world. Online ticketing is also quite a popular option but as briefly hinted at, many organisations fail to see the negative to this cheaper option - there is no support should things go wrong and can even be quite costly to rectify payment issues. I personally don't like this option as I don't feel it is a 100% or as near to that you can get with other systems, secure way to a) handle person details and b) actually gaurentee a sucessful booking. It also doesn't work with venues holding numbered seating with various different areas. Sorry going off topic a little!