John Oliver examines tickets plus MSNBC covers Ticketmaster hearing

I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling this paragraph from 'SNL' searches for comedy in classified documents.

Both the Ticketmaster hearings and the closing of Splash Mountain at Disney World qualify this entry as the Sunday entertainment feature. Both news items tie into what I first wrote in 2011, "America is quite clear about its screwed up priorities­. My experience has convinced me that the surest way to get Americans to act is to mess with their entertainm­ent." Both Ticketmaster and Disney messed with (some) Americans' entertainment, although I'm more sympathetic [to] the Swifties than those complaining about Splash Mountain. The former are reacting to a monopoly, while the latter strike me as a bit selfish and insensitive.

I initially thought about revisiting Splash Mountain, but since the Super Bowl is today, I'm going to revisit Ticketmaster instead, since so many sports arenas are also concert venues.* Watch Tickets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).

John Oliver explains why concert tickets are so expensive, who’s making money off of them, and which One Direction is his favorite.

As I wrote above, Ticketmaster is a monopoly, which are bad for consumers since there is no competition to drive down prices, so monopolies require regulation. Where's the regulation in this picture? Maybe that's why there were hearings last month. Watch MSNBC's Musicians, executives face Senate hearing on frustration of dealing with Ticketmaster.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Ticketmaster's role in the ticketing industry featured testimony from musician Clyde Lawrence, industry competitors and the CFO of Live Nation. NBC News' Savannah Sellers recaps highlights from the hearing and Danny Cevallos explains whether Ticketmaster is a monopoly and how the government could take action against it.

The discussion bypassed regulation entirely and went directly to using anti-trust action to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Wow! That would be radical action that would create competition, which the market needs.

I have videos about Ticketmaster from Bloomberg, CBC News, CNBC, and Company Man saved for future features. If this post proves popular, I will share them. After all, I'm an environmentalist. I don't just recycle my resources, I conserve them.

*I may still return to Splash Mountain, as it touches on Black History Month. I also might revisit the Reedy Creek Improvement District, Disney World's own government, which is back in the news. Stay tuned.