Comcast Buys Fandango and Helps Out TicketsNow

By Alfred Branch, Jr.

Cable giant Comcast Corp. [Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK] has agreed to buy the movie ticket website Fandango for an undisclosed sum, the two companies announced Wednesday. The two are teaming up to create a new multimedia website called Fancast.com that will show movies and television shows that could be viewed on computers, televisions or cell phones, among other devices.

The move could be a boon for ticket reseller TicketsNow because the secondary market mainstay is currently Fandango’s exclusive reseller of tickets to live events. When a visitor clicks on the Live Events button on Fandango.com they end up at the TicketsNow website….

With this deal, TicketsNow potentially will have indirect access to Comcast’s 25 million cable subscribers and 12 million broadband Internet customers. Though they didn’t mention TicketsNow in their announcement, Comcast officials said Fandango will “provide key commerce capabilities” for the Philadelphia-based company and will help drive more traffic to Comcast’s websites, such as the portal Comcast.net. Fandango.com receives about 5 million unique visitors to its website per month, while Comcast.net records about 15 million unique visitors per month.

Fandango CEO Chuck Davis will continue to helm the company in Los Angeles, but the company will now be a part of the Comcast Interactive Media division. Following the announcement, Comcast stock soared more than $1 per share but closed at $27, up $0.74 cents per share.