Industry Rallies Around USIBC’s Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative at Las Vegas Show
LAS VEGAS, April 16 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
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.
SOURCE U.S.-India Business Council
CONTACT: Tara Dhawan of U.S.-India Business Council,
+1-202-463-5886,
tdhawan@uschamber.com
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