WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Dec. 15, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
- In another industry first, and in response to feedback from fans, Ticketmaster, a Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq:TKTM) operating business, today announced its Canadian and US Websites have teamed up with Carnegie Mellon's reCAPTCHA Project to assist visually impaired consumers.
- CAPTCHA technology is used to prevent automated software from accessing tickets.
- reCAPTCHA provides an Audio option that allows visually impaired customers to hear a set of eight digits that can be entered instead of characters.
- Ticketmaster continues to focus fan-friendly solutions and improvements as an ongoing effort to give all fans access to their favorite artist or sporting event.
- The Audio option has been assisting visually impaired fans on Ticketmaster.com and Ticketmaster.ca since January 2008.
The Back-story
- reCAPTCHA is a project of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.
- reCAPTCHA channels this human effort into helping to digitize books from the Internet Archive.
- More than 200 million CAPTCHAs are solved every day by people around the world. When you solve a reCAPTCHA, you help preserve literature by deciphering a word that was not readable by computers. Learn more.
"We're thrilled to work with Ticketmaster on helping them make their service accessible to visually impaired individuals and at the same time secure against automated software that attempts to buy the tickets in bulk," said Luis von Ahn, reCAPTCHA creator.
"The implementation of reCAPTCHA enables us to assist visually impaired fans and is part of our on-going commitment to make the live entertainment experience easy and convenient for all fans." said Howard Fleming, Ticketmaster's Senior Product Manager for Ticketmaster.com.
About Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc.
Ticketmaster Entertainment consists of Ticketmaster and Front Line Management Group. As the world's leading live entertainment ticketing and marketing company, Ticketmaster connects the world to live entertainment. Ticketmaster operates in 20 global markets, providing ticket sales, ticket resale services, marketing and distribution through www.ticketmaster.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites on the Internet; approximately 6,700 retail outlets; and 19 worldwide call centers. Established in 1976, Ticketmaster serves more than 10,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for leading arenas, stadiums, professional sports franchises and leagues, college sports teams, performing arts venues, museums, and theaters. In 2007, the company sold more than 141 million tickets valued at over $8.3 billion on behalf of its clients. Ticketmaster Entertainment acquired a controlling interest in Front Line Management Group in October 2008. Founded by Irving Azoff and Howard Kaufman in 2004, Front Line is the world's leading artist management company, with nearly 200 clients and more than 80 executive managers. Front Line represents a wide range of major artists, including the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Diamond, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Nicks, Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Chicago, Journey, and Guns N' Roses. Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is headquartered in West Hollywood, California (Nasdaq:TKTM).
CONTACT: Ticketmaster - Media, Albert Lopez, +1-310-360-2602, Albert.Lopez@Ticketmaster.com; Investor Relations, +1-310-360-2354, ir@ticketmaster.com