Fandango Media

Fandango Media, LLC is an American ticketing company that sells movie tickets via its website and its mobile app. It also owns Fandango at Home (formerly owned by Walmart and originally known as Vudu), a streaming digital video store and streaming service, and Rotten Tomatoes, a website that provides television and streaming media information. It is a joint venture between Versant and Warner Bros. Discovery.

History

In 2000, James Michael Cline, with Art Levitt, founded Fandango.[6] In 2003, Fandango secured $15 million in funding from venture capitalists Technology Crossover Ventures.[7] Fandango was privately held. Then-owners included exhibition chains (Loews Cineplex Entertainment, Regal Cinemas, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark Theatres, General Cinema Theatres, Edwards Theatres and Century Theatres

Controversies

In July 2009, it was revealed that Fandango and other websites, including buy.com and Orbitz, were linked with controversial Web loyalty programs, also known as post-transaction marketers. Fandango reportedly gave the third party access to Fandango customers' credit cards.[39] In December 2013, Fandango launched a trademark dispute when WWE tried to trademark the name for use by the professional wrestler Fandango (né Johnny Curtis).[40]

In August 2014, the Federal 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.[41] The Fandango mobile app assured consumers, during checkout, that their credit card information was stored and transmitted securely.[42] However, the FTC claims against Fandango focused on failures relating to both the implementation and testing of the Secure 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.[43]

Rotten Tomatoes has received several criticisms relating to its scoring. In October 2015, FiveThirtyEight published a story and podcast calling Fandango's metrics on user ratings into question.[44][45] 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.[46] The problem seemingly extended from Fandango's habit of rounding ratings up to the nearest half.[47] Fandango, in response, noted that this was a glitch it was working to repair.[47] Nevertheless, Gizmodo cited the study after Fandango announced the purchase of Rotten Tomatoes amid fears that the purchase would "ruin" the site.[48] 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.

In December 2017, Fandango received hundreds of complaints regarding its delivery of Star Wars: The Last Jedi tickets. Forbes reported that issues began within hours of advanced sales' becoming available for the new Star Wars film, with customers complaining of long wait times and website glitches.[51]

former name	ticketmakers.com (2000–2007)
type	Joint venture
founded	April 27, 2000
founder	James Michael Cline
hq location city	Beverly Hills, California
hq location country	United States
owners	Versant (75%) Warner Bros. Discovery (25%)‡R1R‡
website	fandango.com
footnotes	‡R2R‡‡R3R‡‡R4R‡‡R5R‡

History

Services

Competition

Controversies

Fandango Latam

Video on demand

See also

External links

References