Ticketmaster.com to Unveil Ticketing System

Online ticket buyers using Ticketmaster.com will soon be able to download and print their own tickets from their computer desktops using a new service the company will unveil today. The Pasadena firm, part of Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, will use bar codes to identify legitimate tickets, and ticket-takers at event venues will use ring-sized scanners to read the bar codes and make sure they are authentic, said Ticketmaster.com Executive Vice President Tom Stockham. Ticketmaster has been developing the technology for several years, and a few dozen venues will be ready to accept self-printed tickets when the service launches in April. Stockham predicted that “up to one-quarter” of customers eligible to print their own tickets will be using the service by the end of the year, though he said he doesn’t expect it to boost the overall number of online ticket sales. Ticketmaster will share the cost of deploying the necessary scanners and database systems with the venues. Shares of Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch fell $2.27 to close at $40.75 on Nasdaq.