The price for a MPEG-2 slot on DD Freedish went through the roof in the first round of e-auction for Bucket A and B on day three with Zee Anmol Cinema paying Rs 24.05 crore, double the base price of Rs 12 crore for Bucket A.
In Bucket B also, Zee paid Rs 21.2 crore to secure a slot for its Bhojpuri channel - Zee Biskope - which is more than double the base price of Rs 10 crore for the bucket.
The other slot winners in Bucket B were Sports18, MTV Beats and Mastii, with each paying over Rs 17 crore each.
The bidding on day three was quite aggressive and fierce as only five slots were sold.
Earlier, 11 slots in Bucket A+ and A were sold on Monday and Tuesday.
The bid amount for six slots of Bucket A+ exceeded Rs 17 crore for each winner over the base price of Rs 15 crore. The winners in this bucket were – Manoranjan TV, Manoranjan Grand, Shemaroo TV, The Q, Dangal and Big Magic.
On the other hand, the price of a MPEG-2 slot under Bucket A on Tuesday was between Rs 16 crore to Rs 17.3 crore for five slots sold to B4U Kadak, Star Utsav Movies, B4U Movies, Rishtey Cineplex and B4U Dhamaka.
The base price for this category in the first round was Rs 12 crore.
The sixth slot was sold to Zee Anmol Cinema for Rs 24.05 crore on Wednesday.
After auctioning two remaining slots under Bucket B, there would not be any takers for Bucket C as the news genre has boycotted the e-auction over the revised methodology.
The news broadcasters alleged that the new methodology would inflate the bidding in round two which allows all the channels across genres to bid in Bucket A+ at the base price of Rs 16 crore.
The concerns expressed by the news broadcasters came true on Wednesday with Zee Anmol Cinema paying a record amount for the last slot in the first round of the auction in Bucket A.
With news channels boycotting the bidding in Bucket C, all other genres - including the devotional - are likely to bid under Bucket D on Thursday.
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