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Fandango Media

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Fandango Media, LLC
Formerlyticketmakers (2000–2007)
Company typeJoint venture
FoundedApril 27, 2000;24 years ago(2000-04-27)
FounderJ Michael Cline
Headquarters
Beverly Hills, California
,
United States
OwnersNBCUniversal(75%)
Warner Bros. Discovery(25%)[1]
Divisions
Websitefandango
Footnotes / references
[2][3][4][5]

Fandango Media, LLCis an Americanticketing companythat sellsmovie ticketsvia their website and theirmobile app.It also ownsFandango at Home(formerly known as Vudu), a streaming digital video store and streaming service, as well asRotten Tomatoes,which provides television and streaming media information.

History

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On April 11, 2007,Comcastacquired Fandango, with plans to integrate it into a new entertainment website called "Fancast",set to launch the summer of 2007.[6]In June 2008, the domainMovieswas acquired from Disney.[7]

In March 2012, Fandango announced a partnership with Yahoo! Movies, making Fandango the official online and mobile ticketer for registered users of theYahoo!service.[8]That October,Paul Yanoverwas named President of Fandango.[9]

Fandango made its first international acquisition in September 2015 when it bought the Brazilian ticketing company Ingresso, which provides ticketing to a variety of Brazilian entertainment events, including the biannualRock in Riofestival.[10]

On January 29, 2016, Fandango announced its acquisition of M-GO,[11]a joint venture betweenTechnicolor SAandDreamWorks Animation(NBCUniversal acquired the latter company three months later),[12]which it would later rebrand as "FandangoNOW".[13]

Ticket toStar Wars: The Force Awakens

In February 2016, Fandango announced its acquisition ofFlixsterandRotten TomatoesfromTime Warner'sWarner Bros. Entertainment.As part of the deal, Warner Bros. would become a 30% shareholder of the combined Fandango company.[14][15]Its stake was reduced to 25% by 2019.[1]

In December 2016, Fandango Media purchasedCinepapaya,a Peru-based website for purchasing movie tickets, for an undisclosed amount.[16]Later that same month, Fandango moved toFox Interactive Media'sformer headquarters in Beverly Hills.[17]

On April 20, 2020,Vuduannounced it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Fandango Media.[18]The sale was completed on July 6, 2020.[19]

On July 16, 2024, Fandango founder J. Michael Cline committed suicide at the age of 64.[20][21]

Services

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Fandango's website also offers exclusive film clips, trailers, celebrity interviews, reviews by users, movie descriptions, and some web-based games to Fandango members.[22]

As of March 5, 2015, Fandango provides members the ability to refund or exchange their orders up to 2 hours before the showtime of their film.[23][24]

Fandango's Android app was listed among Techland's 50 Best Android Applications for 2013.[25]

Competition

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Until its acquisition of its rivalMovieTicketsin 2017, Fandango was one of three majoronlineadvance movie ticket sale sites, along with MovieTickets andAtom Tickets.Before being acquired by Comcast in April 2007, Fandango was privately owned; its majorstakeholder,Regal Entertainment Group,which owned theUnited ArtistsandHoytstheater chains, was the second largest movie-theater chain in the U.S. Regal and its partners founded Fandango partly to prevent the older MovieTickets from establishing a monopoly on phone and online ticketing services. (MovieTickets was publicly owned andtradedunder thestock symbolHOLL.[26]) The company's advertising agency reportedly chose the name "Fandango" because it sounded "fun, kinetic and smart", and "easily pronounce[d] and remember[ed]--even though it really has nothing to do with movies."[27]

Prior to 2012, Fandango did not provide online ticketing for manyAMC Theatres.However, it provided online ticketing for AMC Theatres that were originally part of theLoews Cineplex Entertainmentchain, due to contractual obligations in place prior to the 2005 merger of the two movie chains.[28]Loews had previously attempted to break the contract in 2002 under pressure of bankruptcy and from (then)AOLMoviefoneand its partner, Loews'Cineplexsubsidiary; Fandango successfully sued both Loews and Moviefone and retained Loews' business.[29]As of February 8, 2012, Fandango began providing ticketing for all AMC Theatres in the US,[30]after which MovieTickets 's fellow shareholders sued AMC for breach of contract.[31]AMC and MovieTickets settled in 2013, with an agreement that the theater chain's online ticketing would be available on both Fandango and MovieTickets.[32]

In May 2012, Fandango announced a partnership withMoviefone,MovieTickets 's former partner.[33][34]

Atom Tickets,a movie ticketing app and website launched in 2014, has been called a "serious competitor" of Fandango's.[35][36]

Controversies

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In July 2009, it was revealed that Fandango and other websites, includingbuyandOrbitz,were linked with controversial Web loyalty programs, also known aspost-transaction marketers.Fandango reportedly gave the third party access to Fandango customers' credit cards.[37]

In December 2013, Fandango launched a trademark dispute whenWWEtried to trademark the name for use by theprofessional wrestlerFandango (né Johnny Curtis).[38]

In August 2014, theFederal Trade Commission(FTC) approved final orders settling charges against Fandango for misrepresenting to the public the security of their mobile app and for failing to protect the transmission of Fandango customers' sensitive personal information.[39]The Fandango mobile app assured consumers, during checkout, that their credit card information was stored and transmitted securely.[40]However, the FTC claims against Fandango focused on failures relating to both the implementation and testing of theSecure Sockets Layer(SSL) certificates for 4 years following the mobile app's launch in March 2009. According to the FTC, Fandango commissioned security audits in 2011, but the audits were limited in scope and did not review the security of the app's transmission of information. The FTC also alleged that Fandango did not implement effective channels for security complaints and instead relied on its general customer service system to handle security vulnerability reporting.[41]

Rotten Tomatoes has received several criticisms relating to its scoring. In October 2015,FiveThirtyEightpublished a story and podcast calling Fandango's metrics on user ratings into question.[42][43]The investigation noted that the site's method for calculating ratings made it rare for a movie to ever receive an overall rating below three stars.[44]The problem seemingly extended from Fandango's habit of rounding ratings up to the nearest half.[45]Fandango, in response, noted that this was a glitch it was working to repair.[45]Nevertheless,Gizmodocited the study after Fandango announced the purchase ofRotten Tomatoesamid fears that the purchase would "ruin" the site.[46]Other complaints have concerned apparent political bias, with an analysis of Rotten Tomatoes scores seemingly preferencing films which exhibit progressive values and down-rating conservative ones.[47]Other criticisms suggest score manipulation for commercial reasons: in 2012, 32 million audience votes suddenly appeared for the Star Wars film 'Revenge of the Sith', in what was called by Screenrant "a clear example of nefarious manipulation".[48]

In December 2017, Fandango received hundreds of complaints regarding its delivery ofStar Wars: The Last Jeditickets.Forbesreported that issues began within hours of advanced sales' becoming available for the newStar Warsfilm, with customers complaining of long wait times and website glitches.[49]

Video on demand

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In early 2016, Fandango acquired M-GO,[11]which was re-branded FandangoNOW.[13]Fandango later purchasedVuduin July 2020.[50]FandangoNOW later merged with Vudu on August 3, 2021.[51]Fandango chose to retain the "Vudu" name as it was the larger service with a loyal customer base.[52]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abSpangler, Todd (October 22, 2020)."How Fandango Leaned Into Streaming When Pandemic Theater Closures Hammered Its Ticket Biz".Variety.RetrievedMay 8,2023.NBCU doesn't break out financials for Fandango (in which WarnerMedia retains about a 25% stake).
  2. ^"TicketMakers WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools".WHOIS.Archivedfrom the original on July 13, 2017.RetrievedJuly 13,2016.
  3. ^D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 17, 2016)."Fandango Acquires Rotten Tomatoes & Flixster – Deadline".Deadline.Archivedfrom the original on April 4, 2023.RetrievedFebruary 19,2016.
  4. ^"NBCUniversal's Fandango Acquires Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes".NBC Universal.February 17, 2016.Archivedfrom the original on September 18, 2018.RetrievedFebruary 21,2016.
  5. ^"Privacy Policy".Fandango.Archivedfrom the original on November 24, 2018.RetrievedJune 16,2016.
  6. ^Wallenstein, Andrew (April 12, 2007)."Comcast Adds Fandango".AdWeek.Archivedfrom the original on March 4, 2016.RetrievedApril 29,2011.
  7. ^Chmielewski, Dawn C. (June 24, 2008)."Fandango acquires Movies".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on September 18, 2018.RetrievedApril 29,2011.
  8. ^Perez, Sarah (March 19, 2012)."Fandango Wins Yahoo Movies Deal Over Rival MovieTickets".TechCrunch.Archivedfrom the original on April 11, 2022.RetrievedAugust 27,2017.
  9. ^Faughnder, Ryan."He's led Fandango's ambitious expansion beyond movie ticket sales".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on April 23, 2019.RetrievedMay 9,2019.
  10. ^Spangler, Todd (September 25, 2015)."NBCU's Fandango Acquires Brazilian Ticketing Site Ingresso".Variety.Archivedfrom the original on July 13, 2019.RetrievedJuly 13,2019.
  11. ^abFaughnder, Ryan (January 29, 2016)."Fandango buys online video retailer M-Go to boost 'super ticket' sales".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on April 11, 2022.RetrievedJanuary 29,2016.
  12. ^"Comcast is buying Dreamworks in a $3.8 billion acquisition".Washington Post.Archivedfrom the original on April 29, 2016.RetrievedMay 1,2016.
  13. ^abLongwell, Todd."Fandango Re-Branding M-GO On-Demand Service as FandangoNOW".Videolink.Archivedfrom the original on September 15, 2016.RetrievedMarch 17,2016.
  14. ^Ha, Anthony (February 17, 2016)."Fandango Buys Flixster And Rotten Tomatoes".TechCrunch.Archivedfrom the original on April 11, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 17,2016.
  15. ^"Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster Acquired By Fandango".Slashfilm.February 17, 2016.Archivedfrom the original on February 18, 2016.RetrievedFebruary 19,2016.
  16. ^"Comcast's Fandango Buys Online Ticket-Seller Cinepapaya".Fortune.December 1, 2016.Archivedfrom the original on December 2, 2016.RetrievedDecember 3,2016.
  17. ^Solomon, Daina Beth (December 21, 2016)."Fandango Moving to Larger Headquarters in Beverly Hills".Los Angeles Business Journal.Archivedfrom the original on November 19, 2021.RetrievedNovember 15,2019.
  18. ^Rizzo, Lillian (April 20, 2020)."NBCUniversal's Fandango to Buy Walmart's Vudu Streaming Service".Wall Street Journal.Archivedfrom the original on April 11, 2022.RetrievedApril 20,2020.
  19. ^"Vudu is Now Officially Part of the Fandango Family".July 6, 2020. Archived fromthe originalon April 19, 2022.RetrievedJuly 11,2020.
  20. ^Saunders, Angel (July 17, 2024)."Fandango Founder J. Michael Cline Dead at 64".People.RetrievedJuly 18,2024.
  21. ^Saperstein, Pat (July 17, 2024)."Fandango Founder J. Michael Cline Dies After Falling From New York Hotel".Variety.RetrievedJuly 18,2024.
  22. ^"Site INdex".Fandango.Archivedfrom the original on April 23, 2022.RetrievedOctober 12,2019.
  23. ^"Cancel My Reservation Times".Fandango.October 2019.Archivedfrom the original on July 31, 2020.RetrievedOctober 12,2019.
  24. ^"Ticket Policy".Fandango.October 2019.Archivedfrom the original on April 20, 2022.RetrievedOctober 12,2019.
  25. ^Newman, Jared (July 1, 2013)."50 Best Android Apps for 2013".Techland.Archived fromthe originalon July 4, 2013.RetrievedMarch 29,2016.
  26. ^"FANDANGO TO ACQUIRE POPULAR ONLINE TICKETER MOVIETICKETS.COM, CREATING GLOBAL SUITE OF MOVIE TICKETING PROPERTIES WITH MISSION OF GETTING MORE MOVIEGOERS INTO THEATERS WORLDWIDE".PRNewswire(Press release). Fandango. October 13, 2017.
  27. ^Lang, Adam (October 29, 2014)."Why is it called Fandango?".RewindandCapture.Archivedfrom the original on June 16, 2021.RetrievedOctober 29,2014.
  28. ^Jackson, David (June 23, 2005)."AMC-Loews merger could shake up online movie ticketers Fandango and MovieTickets".Seeking Alpha.Archivedfrom the original on April 11, 2022.RetrievedApril 29,2011.
  29. ^Cox, Beth (August 2, 2002)."Fandango Heads Off An End Run".InternetNews.Archived fromthe originalon May 25, 2008.RetrievedApril 29,2011.
  30. ^"Fandango, AMC Theatres announce newly expanded partnership".Fandango.Archivedfrom the original on August 29, 2023.RetrievedFebruary 8,2012.
  31. ^Rich, Katey (February 8, 2012)."MovieTickets suing AMC setting up Fandango deal".CinemaBlend.Archivedfrom the original on April 11, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 18,2020.
  32. ^McNary, Dave (January 21, 2014)."AMC Comes on Board MovieTickets Following Suit Settlement".Variety.Archivedfrom the original on April 19, 2022.RetrievedMay 13,2015.
  33. ^Verrier, Richard (May 23, 2012)."Fandango and Moviefone dial up new partnership".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on August 29, 2023.RetrievedFebruary 18,2020.
  34. ^Shaw, Lucas (May 23, 2012)."Fandango and Moviefone partner for ticket sales".Reuters. Archived fromthe originalon July 16, 2012.RetrievedJuly 16,2012.
  35. ^Barnes, Brooks (December 4, 2016)."A Movie Ticketing Start-Up Hopes to Fill Empty Seats".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archivedfrom the original on February 9, 2017.RetrievedMarch 16,2017.
  36. ^"Atom Tickets Lobs Bomb at Fandango, MovieTickets".bizjournals.Archivedfrom the original on March 16, 2017.RetrievedMarch 16,2017.
  37. ^Sandoval, Greg (July 24, 2009)."Buy, Orbitz linked to controversial marketers".CNET.Archivedfrom the original on January 27, 2013.RetrievedApril 29,2011.
  38. ^"Another Tribute to the Tropps: Fandango WWE Issues".eWrestlingNews.Archivedfrom the original on March 15, 2022.RetrievedAugust 14,2014.
  39. ^Harris, Meena (August 21, 2014)."FTC Settlement Requires Fandango and Credit Karma to Establish Comprehensive Security Programs to Protect Consumers' Sensitive Personal Information".The National Law Review.Covington & BurlingLLP.Archivedfrom the original on April 21, 2021.RetrievedAugust 24,2014.
  40. ^"Fandango, Credit Karma Settle FTC Charges that They Deceived Consumers By Failing to Securely Transmit Sensitive Personal Information".ftc.gov/.Federal Trade Commission.March 28, 2014.Archivedfrom the original on January 25, 2022.RetrievedAugust 24,2014.
  41. ^LaRose, Cynthia J.; Romero, Jake (March 4, 2014)."Stop Phoning It in on Mobile Security: What Your Business Needs to Know About the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Settlements with Fandango and Credit Karma".The National Law Review.ISSN2161-3362.Archivedfrom the original on July 16, 2021.RetrievedAugust 24,2014.
  42. ^Hickey, Walt (October 15, 2015)."Be Suspicious Of Online Movie Ratings, Especially Fandango's".FiveThirtyEight.Archivedfrom the original on May 3, 2019.RetrievedMay 3,2019.
  43. ^Avirgan, Jody (October 22, 2015)."Rating Subjective Experiences Is Hard, But Fandango Is Really Bad At It".FiveThirtyEight.Archivedfrom the original on May 3, 2019.RetrievedMay 3,2019.
  44. ^Machkovech, Sam (October 15, 2015)."FiveThirtyEight analysis finds inflated, rounded-up reviews at Fandango".Arstechnica.Archivedfrom the original on April 22, 2017.RetrievedMarch 17,2016.
  45. ^abPlaugic, Lizzie (October 15, 2015)."You probably should ignore Fandango movie ratings".The Verge.Archivedfrom the original on April 19, 2022.RetrievedMarch 17,2016.
  46. ^Novak, Matt (February 17, 2016)."Fandango Buys Rotten Tomatoes But Will Probably Ruin It".Gizmondo.Archivedfrom the original on April 7, 2022.RetrievedMarch 17,2016.
  47. ^"Graphing Rotten Tomatoes' Political Bias".RetrievedSeptember 25,2023.
  48. ^"Rotten Tomatoes' New Audience Rating System Is Even Worse".RetrievedSeptember 25,2023.
  49. ^"Stars Wars the Last Jedi Tickets Fandango".Forbes.Archivedfrom the original on April 19, 2022.RetrievedDecember 20,2017.
  50. ^Lipman, Ashley (July 6, 2020)."Vudu is Now Officially Part of the Fandango Family".Xanjero.Archived fromthe originalon July 8, 2020.RetrievedJuly 7,2020.
  51. ^"Fandango chooses Vudu as the way forward for its streaming business".The Verge.August 3, 2021.Archivedfrom the original on June 4, 2023.
  52. ^"FandangoNOW and Vudu merge into a new streaming service with titles to rent, buy or stream free".Archivedfrom the original on April 7, 2022.RetrievedAugust 4,2021.
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