Hong Kong – Piracy cost the regional pay-TV industry $I.54 billion in lost revenue in the past 12 months, up from $US1.13 billion in 2006, according to the annual survey by CASBAA and Standard Chartered Bank. Covering Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Macau and new addition Pakistan, the report also estimates at least $213 million has been lost in unpaid taxes across the region this year. Lee Beasley, Head of Media and Entertainment of Standard Chartered Bank noted, “The pay-TV piracy situation in most of the big markets in the region needs to be seriously addressed, not just by the industry but also by government. Nonetheless, the fact that legitimate paid subscriptions are seeing an average 10% growth is a positive sign of the vast potential for the Asia Pacific pay-TV industry.” Pakistan, surveyed for the first time, suffered revenue losses of $110 million with 4.6 million pirated cable-TV subscriptions, versus 345,000 legitimate subscriptions. Excluding Pakistan, the regional leakage was $1.43 billion, up $300 million or 26% from 2006.