Robbie Williams Info Board

15 August 2003

The Robbie Williams phenomenon is set to gather new momentum with ambitious plans for the "best ever" music DVD and new brand extensions following the artist's record-breaking, three-night concert at Knebworth a weekend ago.

The Robbie Williams phenomenon is set to gather new momentum with ambitious plans for the "best ever" music DVD and new brand extensions following the artist's record-breaking, three-night concert at Knebworth a weekend ago.

The artist's management company IE Music last week confirmed that an extensive DVD and video based around the concert will be released in time for Christmas. Set to capitalise on the DVD boom, it will coincide with re-promotion of his Escapology album, plus other activity including a repeat screening of the Knebworth gig on Channel 4, a Prince's Trust Fashion Rocks charity gig appearance on October 15 and the relaunch of his website. This currently has 250,000 signed-up "Inner Sanctum" members who accounted for up to 20% of the ticket sales for his current tour, which was set to conclude at a 135,000-capacity show at Dublin's Phoenix Park last Saturday.

"We really intend to make the best music DVD so far. Rob's performance guarantees that but we also shot a lot of additional material," says IE founder Tim Clark, adding that filming costs alone for the event were "in excess of £1m". Work on the DVD starts this week. Williams' 2001 Live At The Albert Hall DVD has sold in excess of 200,000 copies in the UK alone, making it the biggest music DVD title to date.

The Knebworth DVD and accompanying video effectively look set to take the place of the artist's first hits album this Christmas. This was pencilled in for release in the fourth quarter when he signed his ground-breaking deal with EMI last October, but will now be released next year, followed by Williams's sixth solo studio album - recording for which is set to start in March next year - in 2005. Escapology, returned to number one in this week's albums chart, will be worked through into next year with plans for a fourth single Sexed Up before Christmas and a fifth single next year. Clark says the hits package is "continuously under review" and currently under discussion with EMI at the highest level.

The Knebworth DVD release will cap the conclusion of the EMI artist's current European summer tour, which is poised to gross ticket sales of £30m across its 15 dates, according to IE. The three Knebworth shows alone, which sold out last November, are likely to have grossed more than £11m before interest. However, ticket sales are one slice of a much bigger pie that includes everything from merchandising to media rights and sponsorship. Among the key contributors to an estimated total gross of around £40m are:

Merchandise: According to IE, the average merchandise spend per head in continental Europe is £2-£3, lower than in the UK. On this basis merchandise sales could gross in excess of £5m.

Sponsorship: Headline sponsorship from Xbox and Smart Car is worth around £3m to the end of December

Media rights: UK terrestrial TV broadcasters pay around £450,000 for the right to air a show like the Knebworth show, according to IE. However, UK viewers were also able to listen to the show on Radio One, and it was webcast on MSN, attracting 200,000 viewers. Industry sources suggest that total international media rights for the gig could be worth £380,000

Performance revenue: Total PRS revenue from the three Knebworth shows alone is set to hit around £350,000, of which the publishers and songwriters involved would each gross a total of around £150,000.

"Knebworth was unprecedented. It was the most graphic representation of Robbie's appeal. It reaffirmed that he is the biggest star in the UK and the world outside of the US," says EMI UK chairman & CEO Tony Wadsworth. "In addition to the huge number of people that attended, it took over the media in the UK for a few days. Meanwhile, to be back at number one after selling 6m copies in the first few weeks of release last year is remarkable."

All the revenue spun-off from Robbie Williams' non-recorded music activities is now flowing into the pioneering In Good Company joint venture set up by IE with EMI at the time the artist renewed his deal with the major last year. Clark and partner David Enthoven sit on the board of the company along with Wadsworth, whose company has a 25% stake to Williams's 75%. EMI invested a "substantial" sum in the joint venture as part of its new deal with Robbie, says Clark.

The scope of the Knebworth dates and on-going tour underline the potential value to EMI of a deal that raised eyebrows at the time it was struck last year. "It makes the agreement we signed make sense to a lot of people. We knew what we were doing but the media had no concept of it. The amounts of money reported for the deal were way off the mark but become folklore anyway, which is irritating," says Wadsworth.

The IE team suggest that In Good Company is also set to derive substantial undisclosed revenue from a series of "brand associations" that extend far beyond simple sponsorship that are currently being finalised, not to mention future projects in areas such as books and film soundtracks.

"Of course we don't always see eye to eye , but we do have shared interests," says Clark. "It was as much about this as about money for Rob and David and I. We could form a partnership whereby the record company was involved in all sides of the artist's career. They get a trust. We can work with the record company so their agenda is closely aligned with the artist. We can sit down with Tony and say 'Here's the activity' and he can say 'What about this'."