The Wall Street Journal's Ethan Smith reports that Live Nation will in early 2009 begin providing ticketing services for the 200 venues operated by SMG. Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty says SMG must seek competitive bids at its venues owned by municipalities. SMG says only a small fraction of its venues require competitive bidding.

Live Nation's deal with Ticketmaster ends at the end of this year. In July of this year, CEO Michael Rapino told Smith that ticketing was the key to its business model. "If there's anything that has been underplayed and overshadowed," he said, "there is one reason you should buy our stock or you should watch our company: It's because we are entering the ticketing business next year."

Ticketing will help Live Nation better merge live music (which has puny profit margins), merchandise, fan clubs and recorded music. The potential for successive bundling is definitely out there.