All 24 digital-TV licence winners successfully made their first licence payment of 50% of the reserve price and a 10% surplus for a total of 11.943 billion baht yesterday.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is slated to issue the licences later this month.
Secretary-general Thakorn Tantasit said the auction revenue will be sent to the universal service obligation fund, which will use it for coupon subsidies in the near future.
The regulator plans to give coupons to 22 million Thai households to use as discounts for the purchase of new TV sets or signal-converting boxes to receive digital-TV signals.
Prior to issuing the 15-year licences, each channel operator must submit its TV programming plan to the NBTC for approval.
A total of 24 digital channels in four categories — news, children's, standard-definition (SD) variety and high-definition (HD) variety — are due to start broadcasting next month.
After this first payment, all winners must pay 30% of the reserve price plus a 20% surplus in the second year, 10% of the reserve price plus a 20% surplus in the third year, 10% of the reserve price and a 20% surplus in the fourth year and a 20% surplus in the fifth and sixth years.
The reserve price for children's channels is 140 million baht, news 220 million, SD variety 380 billion and HD variety 1.51 billion.
The digital-TV auctions will generate 50.9 billion baht in revenue for the government.
The regulator may join with electricity agencies under the Interior Ministry and Thailand Post to distribute the vouchers.
The first phase of digital-TV expansion is set for April 1 for coverage in Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Mai and Songkhla. Next will be Ubon Ratchathani, Surat Thani and Rayong on May 1.