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Viacom18 & E&Y partner licensing expo, Fashion TV & Universal, etc. to participate
MUMBAI: India Licensing Expo (ILE), India’s first business-to-business brand licensing show, will kickstart in August at Sahara Star in Mumbai and see participation of over 100+ global and domestic brands for retail industry. The show sponsors are Viacom18, Orian Installations, Dream Theatre and Bradford License India.
Ernst & Young are process tabulation partners for India Licensing Awards, concurrent event of ILE 2017.
Viacom 18, Fashion TV, Marie Claire, Universal Music, Mondo TV, JCB, Polaroid, NBA, Sesame Street, Authentic Brands Group, Green Gold Animation, are a few amongst list of top brands participating at the first ever licensing show to be held in the country.
The show will be organised by exclusive licensing media company, License India, and is supported by global licensing body, Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA), Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI) and Sports Goods Foundation of India.
“We intend to position India Licensing Expo as a dedicated hub where the industry unifies to shop brands for business across all industries. We bring together brands of every kind – sports, character, corporate, music, art, entertainment, for retailers to embed in their business / products,” License India chairman Gaurav Marya said.
The exposition displays all kind of licensing opportunities for manufacturers & retailers across products, such as in characters, Chhota Bheem, Peppa Pig, PJ Masks, Dora, Popeye, Motu Patlu, Toki Doki, Jungle Book, Ben 10, Power Puff Girls, Mighty Raju, Sponge Bob, Jumanji movie, Emoji Movie, Sesame Street, and much more. In corporate brands, the galore offers brands like Juicy Couture, Aeropostale, Spyder, Misook, Airwalk, Lamborghini, Compaq, JCB, Fashion TV, University of Oxford, Marie Claire, Absorba, Shell, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Route 66, Polaroid, Femina Flaunt, Kuber, Mechanix, and much more. Music & Art brands would be Universal Music with wide pool of top artists, MTV, Billboard, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Romero Britto and much more; and sports properties would be NBA, Delhi Daredevils, Extreme Sports, VOIT, Mancity FC, FC Barcelona, Roland & Garros, Cycle Polo Federation of India, Maui & Sons, Muhammad Ali, Shaq and much more.
Bradford license India director Chitra S. Johri said, “This would be a bigger movement in our domain of licensing, benefitting each product category in actual sense.”
ILE has also tied up with Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI). “We look forward to enabling multiple French licensors eyeing Indian market to capitalize and leverage this show,” said IFCCI secretary-general Payal. S. Kanwar.
The conference puts forth a strong panel with industry stalwart’s like Dan Frugtniet (VP-Licensing & Business Development, Nickelodeon, Viacom Consumer Products), Saugato Bhowmick (Head of Viacom18- Consumer Products), Yannick Colaco (MD-NBA), Siddharth Chury (Senior Director – NBA India), Manan Mehta (VP-Marketing & Merchandise, Yashraj Films), Sandeep Dahiya (Director – Brand Extensions, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd), Samir Jain (ED & COO, Green Gold Animation), Shivram Saran (AVP & Head Consumer Products, JCB), Roberto Bre (Director, Private Collection, Marie Claire), Rajan Madhu (President, FTV India), Maura Regan (Sr. Vice President, LIMA), Manish Mandhana (CEO, Mandhana Retail – Being Human), Jason Sutton (Director, Polaroid), Jiggy George (Head, LIMA India & CEO, Dream Theatre), Ishmeet Singh (Country Manager, Mattle Toys India), Anurag Sachdeva (Director, Rovio, Angry Birds), Afsar Zaidi (MD, Exceed Entertainment, HRX) and many more. Witness the veterans of licensing industry coming together to discuss the challenges, explore the kind of engagements and further work towards uplifting of the L&M industry as a whole in India.
ILE 2017 ‘exclusively’ also hosts India’s foremost licensing recognition platform, India Licensing Awards 2017 partnered with Marie Claire. Celebrating the best in Indian Licensing Industry, these awards would remain to be one of its kind recognition where the whole fraternity will come together to celebrate excellence, right from the brand owners, brand custodians to entrepreneurial retailers, latest licensees on the block, to raise a toast to outstanding achievements in the industry so far. Judged, curated and tabulated by panel of experts, the awards are supported by Ernst & Young as process partners. With 21 focused categories for licensing fraternity, the awards would acknowledge top brasses of the industry. To name a few categories – Licensor Of The Year (Entertainment, Celebrity, Sports, Corporate, Bollywood, Art, Character, Music), Licensee Of The Year (Apparel, Fashion Accessories, Toys & Games, Gifts & Novelties, Back To School, Electronics, Retail Innovation & Business Concept, Home Décor, FMCG, New Media & Publishing), along with Special Categories like IP Firm Of The Year and Licensing Agent Of The Year.
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Reed Hastings to exit Netflix board as company posts steady growth
Shares dip 8 per cent as cofounder exits; revenue up 16 per cent to $12.25 billion.
MUMBAI- When the man who taught the world to binge decides to log off, the credits don’t just roll, they reset the script. Reed Hastings is set to step away from Netflix, marking the end of a defining chapter for a company that reshaped global entertainment even as its latest numbers suggest a business finding firmer footing.
Hastings, who co-founded Netflix nearly three decades ago and transformed it from a DVD-by-mail service into a streaming powerhouse, will not stand for re-election at the company’s annual meeting in June. While the company offered little detail on his next move beyond philanthropy and personal pursuits, the symbolic weight of his departure was immediate. Shares fell around 8 per cent following the announcement, underlining how closely Hastings remains tied to investor confidence and the company’s long-term vision.
The exit comes at a moment of recalibration. Netflix has been working to stabilise growth after a period of strategic turbulence, including the loss of a high-profile $72 billion deal involving Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount Skydance, a setback that raised fresh questions about its ambitions in large-scale content consolidation. Yet, if the deal slipped, the fundamentals appear to be holding.
For the first quarter, Netflix reported revenue growth of 16 per cent to $12.25 billion, slightly ahead of expectations, while earnings per share nearly doubled to $1.23 from 66 cents a year ago. The company reaffirmed its full-year outlook, projecting double-digit revenue growth, expanding margins and strong free cash flow signals aimed squarely at calming post-announcement jitters.
In its shareholder communication, Netflix struck a careful balance between legacy and continuity. Its mission, it reiterated, remains unchanged: to serve a global audience with diverse storytelling across languages and cultures. The message was clear—while a founder may exit, the playbook stays in motion.
At the same time, the company is quietly redrawing that playbook. Netflix is leaning into newer formats such as video podcasts and live programming, including events like the World Baseball Classic in Japan, reflecting a broader industry shift where streaming, television and live experiences increasingly overlap. Advertising, once an afterthought in its subscription-first model, is now moving centre stage, with the company projecting ad revenues of $3 billion in 2026 roughly double current levels.
Still, some questions linger in the wings. Chief among them is how Netflix plans to deploy the $2.8 billion termination fee from the collapsed Warner Bros deal. With competition for premium content intensifying, capital allocation decisions in the coming quarters could prove as consequential as the leadership transition itself.
For now, Netflix finds itself in a familiar paradox: a company built on disruption navigating continuity. Hastings may be stepping off the stage, but the show by design goes on.
