Interestingly, the BCCI base price quote is only for the first year. The floor price for the subsequent four years could change as the situation unravels, BCCI sources told Indiantelevision.com on Monday after the meeting ended.

The sports channels, however, will have to bid for the full five-year period.

BCCI sources said that the interested parties could now start sending in their bids. Assuming that the bid stands for all five years at $59 million per year, there could be changes in the base price for the subsequent years.

Sports channel sources said that the assumption they are making is that depending on how the fluid situation takes shape, considering how the rival Indian Cricket League takes on the BCCI challenge, prices could be lower in the subsequent year.

"They (BCCI) obviously are not clear enough about the challenge and, thus, have not fixed a rock solid bottom price," an expert whose channel is among the prospective bidders told Indiantelevision.com.

Sources said that the bids by the channels would be considered along with the competing channels' presentations that had been made on 19 November.

The meeting was scheduled on Monday to discuss the base price, which was held here after the Jaipur presentations by Sony, ESPN-Star and Neo Sports, in which the BCCI had sought to get the picture of how the rival channels would leverage the business opportunity.

In the Jaipur presentations, BCCI had ensured that each channel made its separate presentation. Officials of all the channels are yet tight-lipped about the parameters of judging their strengths that the national cricket body was looking at.

Most of the world's cricketing icons, including the most prized Indian players will play for the IPL, designed after the English Premier League, and companies are vying to buy teams.

"This seems an unlikely figure for one year, and may be the BCCI is playing it out to get a much higher bid in the final count," said an industry watcher.

Top BCCI officials were unavailable for authorised comment on the issue.

The IPL will figure 56 T20 matches and players are going to get dream remunerations, which is BCCI's gambit for smashing out Subhash Chandra's rival Indian Cricket League which kicks off on 30 November.