Wise Children production ‘Romantics Anonymous’ quadruples audience via pay-per-view live streaming
Virtual ticket sales for Wise Children’s critically acclaimed musical Romantics Anonymous last month quadrupled with the help of global live streaming technology via TicketCo Media Services.
Romantics Anonymous was due to tour the USA this year following a sell-out show at the Bristol Old Vic. Dates in US cities including Los Angeles, Washington DC and Charleston had been set, but the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown meant the tour was cancelled.
Determined to support its freelance cast and crew financially and provide a mental health boost by enabling them to return to the stage, Wise Children decided to stream five live performances of Romantics Anonymous online, within COVID-19 distancing regulations from the Bristol Old Vic.
More than 11,000 people purchased tickets globally and streamed the performances from the comfort of their own homes. It was a massive increase compared to the 2,700 physical tickets the company would have been able to sell for five nights at the 540 capacity Bristol Old Vic.
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Simon Baker, Wise Children technical director, said: “Partnering with TicketCo Media Services enabled us to perform live again, which has been wonderful. It has given everyone a massive boost.
“We are thrilled that with TicketCo Media Services support via live streaming and ticketing, we are able to deliver a show that was not only of high quality but also financially viable too. I would urge my theatre colleagues across the UK to explore the options available. By live streaming the performances, we managed to more than quadruple our total audience, and that’s only considering people that purchased tickets. We now know that there is a new audience beyond the auditorium.”
Buoyed by the impact and opportunity provided by pay-per-view live streaming Wise Children have announced it will perform and live stream The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk to a global audience online via TicketCo Media Services from the Bristol Old Vic in December.
David Kenny, TicketCo Global Partnership Director, said: “TicketCo Media Services was created and launched in response to COVID-19 to help the live events industry continue to perform. The response Wise Children has received from a global audience has been truly uplifting amid such a challenging time. We’re looking forward to continuing to work on further performances together and hope this provides confidence to the theatre sector that there is digital solution that can enable shows to take place.”
Wise Children is a theatre production company created by multi-award-winning director Emma Rice. It makes ground-breaking work and tours the UK and internationally. It also runs a professional development programme ‘The School for Wise Children’, training new and a more diverse generation of theatre practitioners.
TicketCo is a cloud-based event payment company, with offices in Norway, the UK, and Sweden. TicketCo’s technology is designed to make event payments quick and easy. Its payment platform is integrated with its pay-per-view live streaming service TicketCo Media Services.
About us
At TicketCo we have built our business on providing an easy to use digital platform for event organisers, artists, and venues to sell tickets and market their events. We have always been at the forefront of developing our own technology to adapt and provide a service and platform that is relevant in the digital age.
When lockdown hit the industry the team at TicketCo soon realised it was an opportunity and the company invested in R&D to develop and launch TicketCo Media Services, a new pay per view live streaming and video on demand service. It is combined with our ticketing platform so organisers and artists can monetise digital content and events.
