MUMBAI: FICCI and the Commonwealth Business Council, UK organised the India Media and Entertainment Conference: Indo-UK partnership in London on 16 October, 2006. This was FICCI’s first organised effort to showcase the potential of Indian media and entertainment industry globally.

A delegation of more than 30 senior professionals from the core sectors of Indian media and entertainment industry including films, TV, radio, animation, gaming and visual effects, travelled to London for the event.

FICCI Entertainment Committee chairman Yash Chopra, FICCI Entertainment Committee co-chairman and SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, ENIL CEO and managing director A P Parigi, Music Broadcast Pvt. Ltd. CEO Apurva Purohit, Indian Music Industry president V J Lazarus, Jain TV chairman Dr Jain, PWC partner Deepak Kapoor, Time Broadband Services managing director and CEO Sujata Dev and Percept Picture Company COO Ramesh Ramanathan were some of the members of the delegation.

The forum provided a platform to discuss issues like Indo-UK cooperation in the film, TV, radio, technology, animation and visual effects for content sharing, co-production, financing and distribution channels. It sought partnerships and collaborative endeavours between private sectors of India and the UK across several genres of media and entertainment sector.

The Indian side engaged with more than 100 delegates largely from the creative industry of the UK. This includes major players from the entertainment industry, financial institution like Barclays, British Council, Bloomberg, Google, BBC, UK Film Council, General Atlantic, HSBC etc.

The global market value of creative industries has increased from $831 billion in 2000 to $1.3 trillion in 2005. The Indian entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy. It stands at more than $8 billion today and is expected to grow at an 19 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach more than $19 billion in 2010, according to the FICCI-PWC report. The nation’s entertainment industry is expected to outperform GDP growth by a significant margin in the coming years. In the UK, the creative business contributes 11.4 billion pounds to the trade balance.

“The entertainment industry is experiencing a major shift in the way entertainment is distributed with new distribution channels, such as broadband, Internet access and wireless communications, which are driving significant growth in the industry. There is a huge potential for India and Britain to work together. Our creative industries can cooperate, learn from each other and help each other to flourish,” stated an official release.

The governments of India and the UK are engaged in a dialogue for India-UK co-production treaty. Some of the issues with regard to this, specially the opportunities it shall throw up for the film sectors on both sides were deliberated upon at the forum.

This conference took place a day prior to the 50th London Film Festival, which begins on 18 October, where a number of Indian films are being screened.