Accenture Expands Its Digital Media and Entertainment Capabilities with Introduction of Copyright and Royalty Administration Services

The Netherlands’ Buma/Stemra is first customer

NEW YORK; Jan. 16, 2008 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today introduced a new portfolio of services to help music, entertainment and other companies active in the intellectual property industry manage and protect the intellectual property rights of musicians, authors and publishers in the rapidly expanding digital marketplace.

The new service portfolio, called Rights & Royalties Management, provides an end-to-end process that focuses on three main functions: a rights and royalties solution that provides all facets of rights and royalties management -- from acquiring the rights and selling the licenses to collecting fees and paying the rights holders; IT hosting and application maintenance services; and business process outsourcing services. Accenture will also draw on its extensive experience in the media and entertainment industry to provide management consulting services that help companies exploit the online environment by optimizing business models and processes.

Accenture has signed Buma/Stemra as the first client of its new Rights & Royalties Management portfolio. Buma/Stemra is a Dutch rights and royalties organization that defends the creative rights of Dutch music authors and collects its customers’ (music authors and publishers) financial royalties. Under its contract with Accenture, Buma/Stemra has begun outsourcing all of its back-office and IT activities to Accenture.

“Accenture’s rights and royalties initiative delivers end-to-end intellectual property management solutions to our clients, ensuring the efficient tracking and administration of their intellectual property and significantly accelerating and strengthening Accenture’s digital media capabilities,” said Greg Douglass, global managing director of Accenture’s Media & Entertainment practice. “The contract with Buma/Stemra is a significant step toward the realization of our ambition to deliver solutions throughout the media and entertainment digital supply chain.”

The Rights & Royalties Management portfolio is designed to enable companies to lower costs by helping them: standardize and optimize the rights and royalties collection process; automate labor-intensive activities such as matching usage data to the content library and calculating royalties; and sourcing labor to more cost-effective suppliers.

The portfolio should also help companies improve their intellectual property management; focus on their core business of attracting artists and creating/buying content; and improve key performance-indicator-driven reporting capabilities and analysis.

In conjunction with the introduction of the new portfolio, Accenture has opened two rights and royalties service centers (RRSCs) in Amsterdam and Prague. The RRSCs will focus on four key industry constituent areas that engage rights and royalties administration: music copyright collecting societies; neighboring collecting societies; music companies with rights and royalties administration; and media, entertainment and communications companies with rights and royalties administration needs.

“Establishing this portfolio of services and dedicated rights and royalties centers validates our position as an innovative market leader in delivering a comprehensive set of solutions to address the various facets of today’s rapidly evolving digital marketplace,” said Douglass.

“Accenture’s track record, global presence and knowledge of the media and entertainment industry combined with our long and trusted business relationship were paramount in our decision to continue working with them,” said Cees Vervoord, chief executive officer, Buma/Stemra. “We believe that this arrangement will help us meet the new demands and challenges of this sector today and enable us to deliver financial benefits to our members.”

For more information on Accenture’s Rights & Royalties Management portfolio please visit: www.accenture.com/rightsandroyalties.

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About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With more than 175,000 people in 49 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Buma/Stemra
Buma/Stemra represents the interests of Dutch and foreign music authors and music publishers in the Netherlands. Buma/Stemra’s core task is the commercial exploitation (collection and distribution of remunerations) and management of music copyright for composers, lyricists and music publishers affiliated to the organization. Buma/Stemra runs its services efficiently along commercial lines by representing the interests of music authors and providing services of the highest possible quality at the lowest possible cost. Buma/Stemra protects music copyright and supports music as a cultural (national) product. As such, the organization goes far beyond the mere commercial exploitation of music copyright.

Contact: Gary Morgenstern
Accenture
+1 (973) 301-3347
gary.a.morgenstern@accenture.com