“We were expecting fantastic digital bids and with the fight for group A and B still on, the magic figure of Rs 50,000 crore could well be touched. For Package C and D, one can have a rough estimate that another Rs 5500 crore would be added if these first two packages stop at Rs 45,000 crore,” another BCCI official, present in Mumbai, said.
Among the company bigwigs, one of the biggest names in the TV industry, who knows IPL media rights bidding like back of his hand, said: “The BCCI will laugh its way to the bank but if the media rights value goes beyond Rs 50,000 crore, then it will have its own set of consequences for that kind of aggressive bidding.”
The market watchers are saying that Zee could come hard for Package D as it has already got an overseas dedicated viewership base with its Zee TV serials and now they also have their ZEE5 app.
“With Rs 3 crore as base price, Zee could up their game in that category,” the source added.