3rd Party Ticket Sellers Hit The Skids

I've reported that the future of 3rd party movie ticket sellers (ie Fandango) was doom and gloom.

Google Assistant Goes to the Cinema

This prediction materialized when the large cinema circuits began to offer ticket sales via their own websites. Now, putting move pressure on 3rd party ticket sellers, Google has decided to streamline movie ticket purchasing for online searchers by use of their Google Assistant.

Google Assistant will pop-up when searching for a movie and offer users a series of overlay images on top of a theater chain's website. It will include asking the purchaser for showtime select, number of tickets, and choice of seat (optional). Assistant then uses this info to auto-fill the data required by each ticket vendor's website (this would include Fandango, MovieTickets, and the large cinema exhibs.).

Google Assistant is based upon a technology called Duplex, which uses AI to interact with 3rd party services. Duplex's ability to mimic the sound of the human voice (complete with the occasional 'humm' for realism) is uncanny.

Google wants to use Assistant in many other online purchasing scenarios, including car rentals and hotel reservations.

Well Fandango, there you have it. What value do you bring to the ticket purchasing process?  None. Fandango is now just a 3rd party that has no unique selling proposition.  Game Over!

Jim Lavorato
President, Entertainment Equipment Corp.