From comedy shows to plays, ground events are back to entertain

While Paytm Insider is mostly hosting standup comedy and music shows like Sab scam hai by comedian Gaurav Kapoor, BookMyShow along with comedy and music shows is seeing strong traction for plays.

For the live event industry, ground events are its star content, and slowly these events are taking place, bringing some respite to the sector that has been reeling under pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was in the fourth phase of unlocking when live events industry got the go ahead from the Centre to hold ground events with a ceiling of 100 people.

From November onwards, online ticketing platform Paytm Insider started listing ground events.

And in the first three weeks of December, BookMyShow sold close to 15,000 tickets for various on-ground entertainment events.

While Paytm Insider is mostly hosting standup comedy and music shows like Sab scam hai by comedian Gaurav Kapoor, BookMyShow along with comedy and music shows is seeing strong traction for plays.

Small format workshops, screenings, and exhibitions have started taking baby steps and helping turn the wheel of recovery for live entertainment industry

- Albert Almeida, COO, Live Entertainment, BookMyShow

He added that even "small format workshops, screenings, and exhibitions have started taking baby steps and helping turn the wheel of recovery for live entertainment industry."

When it comes to markets, Paytm Insider is seeing strong traction in Goa, Delhi, and Mumbai whereas for BookMyShow the top markets for ground events include Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, and Chennai.

But are these events selling at lower prices than pre-COVID period?

According to Shreyas Srinivasan, CEO of Paytm Insider, there is no change in pricing when it comes to ground events that are happening after lockdown.

"In the pre-COVID times, average price for on-ground events was around Rs 850 across genres and this continues to be the same now. Most of the events are sold at the same price because the capacity is much lower," he said.

Talking about demand for the ground events after lockdown, Srinivasan said most of the events are selling out.

"The events that are happening currently are small events which are under 50 people because that is what we are getting permissions for. So, it is 1/10th of what it used to be in the pre-COVID period. Most of these events are selling out because they are small in capacity. While there is no demand problem, events are selling out because there is less inventory. Number of events that are happening are not at pre-COVID levels."

He further said business will be back only when everything opens up. "Currently, new year events are not happening, in many cities there is night curfew. And new year was a huge opportunity for us last year."

This is why live events industry is not shifting its focus from virtual events which were the only solution for the live events sector during the lockdown.

"While we have seen growth in ground events in the last one and one half months, even virtual events have held their ground. We are not seeing decrease in virtual events. From business point of view we now have two sources of revenue as compared to pre-COVID period. All are stakeholders from consumers, organisers to brands are showing interest in continuing with virtual events to see what more can be explored."

Sharing similar sentiments, Almeida said, "Before we reach pre-COVID levels in the sector, we foresee an opportunity for a hybrid model where both, out-of-home and a live experience delivered virtually at home may co-exist.

This year BookMyShow hosted 6,400 virtual events of which over 80 percent were paid events.

Over 37,000 hours of content was streamed through BookMyShow and more than two lakh consumers registered and bought tickets to watch virtual events on the platform.