Industry Rallies Around USIBC's Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative at Las Vegas Show

Industry Rallies Around USIBC's Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative at Las Vegas Show

LAS VEGAS, April 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The recently-released U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) study, 'The Effects of Counterfeiting and Piracy on India's Entertainment Industry', served as a "call to arms" during the India super-session at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The study, prepared for USIBC by Ernst & Young India, demonstrates that India's burgeoning entertainment industry loses as much as 4 billion U.S. dollars and 800,000 direct jobs each year due to counterfeiting and piracy. The study was commissioned as part of the USIBC-FICCI Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative, which promotes the sustainable growth and convergence underway between the entertainment industries of the U.S. and India.

Leading the session 'India's Entertainment Economy: From Emerging to Surging', Farokh T. Balsara, National Sector Leader, Media and Entertainment for Ernst & Young-India, said "The Indian entertainment industry is growing at a combined annual rate of over 18% and companies at the NAB show have shown enormous interest in collaborating with India. The USIBC-FICCI Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative has raised expectations that the very real concerns over counterfeiting and piracy will be addressed, leading directly to the generation of additional jobs and revenue."

Greg Kalbaugh, USIBC's director and counsel, noted, "The Hollywood-Bollywood Initiative has really touched a nerve, and companies in the U.S. and India are lining up to offer their support. Now that we've quantified the losses, we're working with government and industry to eliminate counterfeiting and piracy at the source. The first step is supporting India's adoption of sensible legislation which regulates the production of optical discs. That will have an immediate impact on the rates of counterfeiting and piracy."

Mr. Kalbaugh went on to state, "Every time we discuss the Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative, additional stakeholders come out of the woodwork with their own story about how piracy and counterfeiting have impacted their business. Las Vegas has been no different - I've been approached by content providers, distributors, producers, and financiers, all of whom have the same story: counterfeiting and piracy are killing our industry and it's about time we banded together to put a stop to it."

The U.S.-India Business Council, formed in 1975 at the request of the Government of India and the U.S. Government to advance U.S.-India commercial ties, is hosted under the aegis of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region. The U.S.-India Business Council celebrates its 33rd Anniversary at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 12, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

www.usibc.com

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Source: U.S.-India Business Council

CONTACT: Tara Dhawan of U.S.-India Business Council, +1-202-463-5886,
tdhawan@uschamber.com

Web Site: http://www.usibc.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment