With some news channels breaking ranks and defying the boycott calls on Day-4 of the DD Freedish e-auction, all others are left with no option but to join the bidding.
Highly placed sources across news broadcasters told BestMediaInfo.com that they will now have to participate in the ongoing e-auction to protect their business interests.
Also Read: Round 1 sold out, will remaining news channels get cheaper DD Freedish slots?
It is learnt from reliable sources that NBF president Arnab Goswami, who was one of the signatories of the joint letter sent to I&B minister Anurag Thakur stating news channels will not participate in the auction, broke ranks and started bidding along with a few other NBF members.
“Arnab was not ready to sign the letter to the minister but he agreed to sign on Tuesday. We got a sense in the beginning that Republic and TV9 will not stick to the decision in letter and spirit,” a source said.
Sensing the game playing out in real-time, the likes of News18, Zee News and NDTV India also joined the bidding war.
Many NBDA members were sitting out until the end of the auction on the fourth day.
However, in a late-night development, all NBDA members agreed to participate in the e-auction.
“The letter to the minister was a commercial decision on the basic premise of securing an affordable price for the news genre struggling big time. However, it was left to individual channels to decide if they want to bid and spend Rs 20 crore,” said a senior executive of a news broadcaster.
On Thursday, five slots of Bucket C were sold to Republic Bharat (Rs 16.55), TV9 Bharatvarsh (Rs 14.55 crore), Zee News (Rs 15.5 crore), NDTV India (Rs 16.55 crore) and News18 India (Rs 19.85 crore).
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