NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has yet again extended the date of submitting the total migration fees for existing operators of Phase II FM Radio wanting to migrate to Phase III to 27 October.

Earlier, those wanting to migrate had been told that they could pay 25 per cent of the non-refundable one-time entry fee (NOTMF) by 5 October and the balance by 15 October.

Accepting another demand by Phase II FM operators for extension of time, the MIB once again said the option of migration only applied to Phase II operators and not Phase I operators.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has assured the Courts that FM channels whose petitions are pending before courts would be given the chance to migrate in case they succeeded in their pleas. This includes some channels of the Sun Group of companies.

Earlier on 29 September, it had said that the migration fee had been fixed according to the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) of 20 February this year.

Each channel in Mumbai, which falls under the ‘A’ plus category will have to pay Rs 36.69 crore to the Ministry while each channel from category ‘D’ city- Aizawl will have to shell out Rs 0.12 crore.

This means that from Mumbai, the Ministry will receive a total of approximately Rs 256.83 crore, considering there are seven stations - Radio City, Red FM, Fever FM, Big FM, Radio One, Radio Mirchi and Oye FM.

The second highest pay-out will come from New Delhi, which will pay Rs 33.33 crore per channel, which means that all the stations together will contribute about Rs 266.64 crore.