THE DEVELOPMENT OF .TV (DOT-TV)...LIKE "WATCHING CEMENT DRY" BUT MAYBE, JUST MAYBE
6/10/08We have done many posts here on .TV. Here, guest-author Carlie Lawson examines the state of affairs in .TV Land.
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Of all the Web 2.0 domains, .tv, originally a country code, has generated the greatest expectations, and the greatest disappointments in its short existence. The dual purpose extension, representing both a Web site’s location, and its online media content, has experienced a significant increase in overall sales in the last two years, but continues to produce relatively low returns at auction.
Actually a country code for the small island nation of Tuvalu, .tv (aka dot tv) became a general availability domain in 2000 when VeriSign negotiated a deal with the Tuvaluan government. Except for reserved names like .com.tv, .net.tv, .org.tv, etc. anyone may register a .tv domain.
According to wikipedia , the Tuvaluan government receives a quarterly payment of USD $1,000,000 for use of the top-level domain. It also owns 20 percent of dot tv, the Verisign subsidiary that manages the domain extension. The popularity of the domain extension stems from its abbreviation of the English word television, which is known and understood worldwide, creating an instant, theoretical economical value.
Rapid growth not rapid enough for some
Total Registrations calls .tv "the fastest growing domain of all time," but doesn't provide verification for that assertion. It argues that companies need the .tv extension because it is “the most widely recognized two-letter symbol in the world,” and appeals to business’ competitive sense by rolling off a list of companies currently using the extension, including Sega of America, ColumbiaTriStar International Television, Granada Sky, IBM, Motorola, The Economist, British Telecom, and Barclays Bank.
Recently, a great deal of attention has been focused on raising the ante for the extension, but dot tv CEO Lou Kerner has been a believer since the deal was cut with Tuvalu in 2000.
"I had never seen a company with as compelling a business model as dot TV," he told Salon.com that year. "I thought from the start that .tv could be bigger than .com, so I was very excited about it.”
Faced with low uptake of the extension, in 2006 VeriSign, Inc. partnered with Demand Media to market the TLD as the Web address for rich media content. Former MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt founded Demand Media, the parent company of ChannelMe.tv, a site promoting .tv via interest marketing . ChannelMe.tv enables users to register a domain, create a site, add content, then monetize the site - all from one page. It took awhile to catch on, but made headway last year.
As recent as early 2007, dot tv still lagged in sales, so the domainer excitement at Namepros.com was understandable when a third quarter Google report of indexed sites showed .tv overtaking other Web 2.0 extensions. Among the extensions .biz, .cc, .mobi, .name, and .tv, the domain ranked second with 18 million sites, only beaten by .biz.
Low auction prices
Based upon its growing popularity, for domainers holding the right names, future worth could far exceed the initial cost. The domains cost a few dollars more to buy, initially, but can result in a more than decent payoff. Premium names sell at auction, while others may be purchased via any domain seller. Although recent auction sales of .tv have tapered down into the five figures, many see hope for the domain as its popularity rises commensurate with online media sites.
3Character.com's Raymond Hackney says many domainers do not like .tv due to its premium pricing , but also notes that they may be missing the benefit of the expense – it reduces the competition.
Although only one .tv made DN Journal's Country Code Domains (ccTLD's) Year-To-Date Top 100, which tracks the highest reported 2007 country code domain sales through December 30, the overall number of .tv domains keeps rising. Hot.tv came in 26th, selling for $35,000 at DRT Auction in September 2007. The past years have seen a few six figure sales for this extension, among them china.tv, free.tv, and net.tv, each of which went for $100,000. But since those sales, numbers dropped to five figures. Golf.tv is rumored to have sold for $600,000, but no verification exists to prove it, as stated in Domain Blog . Whether that sales figure is correct or not, the fact remains that the last year has not seen a great deal of big money action in .tv sales.
This year shows promise though. According to DN Journal , three five figure sales occurred in the first quarter. In March, Fussball.tv went for $28,367 at a Sedo auction. The other two five figure sales occurred in April: Viajar.tv for $12,856 and Welcome.tv for $10,000. A few other names auctioned this year have produced sales in the low thousands: Automotive.tv for $7,000 in January 2008, DebtConsolidation.tv for $6,195 and Anybody.tv for $5,500 in February 2008, and NTV.tv for $5,680 in April 2008.
But many domainers say the low number of recent chart topping sales is partially due to Moniker dropping the ball, according to a recent Namepros article . Moniker offered five to eight .tv domains at auction out of nearly 2,800 domains offered. (A range is provided because some domains listed in the auction catalog did not actually reach auction.)
TV with no cable box required
The average Joe keeps snapping up the domains though. May 2007 numbers from eNom , a domain wholesaler and wholly-owned subsidiary of Demand Media , sold about $500,000 in .tv names in the first 24 hours it offered the domain in conjunction with the introduction of Me.tv , according to StartUpBeat .
Other domain registrars are using a variety of advertising methods to bolster .tv's sales, from GoDaddy’s online only Super Bowl commercial featuring NASCAR's Danica Patrick exposing herself to Total Registrations' logical appeal to businesses. GoDaddy also appeals to those looking to purchase by offering lower prices and special promotions.
The popularity of .tv websites has centered in the US, UK, and Australia, but is growing in other countries, showing that “videocentric sites are a huge worldwide phenomenon and the .tv extension is at its heart,” according to a May 2008 article in Namepros . Recent new sites include Italy’s Florence.tv , the Central Tibetan Administration’s official web tv station, tibetonline.tv , and Atapuerca.tv , a Spanish archaeology site.
Back in the US, Lin TV has also jumped on the .tv bandwagon. It recently launched 17 local politics sites, such as MichiganPolitics.tv and bought .tv domain names in each of the 50 states and the top designated marketing areas (DMAs). The company will partner with other media outlets in creating template-based political sites which host TV content, newswire feeds, candidate biographies, general political news and blogs, according to an article in Lost Remote .
One domainer sees dot tv in a completely positive light – one that provides opportunity where there previously was none. In response to a May Namepros article, Smash Factory says dot tv opened the door to people getting a name they want. It also spurred “wacky innovative off-center names” because the brand encourages creative naming, such as that used to name TV shows.
”(Dot tv) is flourishing in development and usage, and not in sales,” Smash Factory said. “This, I think, defies what domainers know as to how this all works and its got people confounded.”
Conclusion
In the early days of the extension, dot tv was less of a commodity, but broadband connections have proliferated the globe, and WiFi now keeps entertainment hungry masses connected on the road. Now it makes more sense to have a Web site stocked with rich media content. Nearly everyone can access it.
That means its likely that if dot tv continues the strong marketing push it started among both domain traders and the general public, it may very well succeed in forcing prices and popularity to rise. It’s important though that the tv ccTLD continue finding new ways to diversify. Now that Internet saturation is imminent, perhaps its time to really start pushing video via the mobile Web.
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Reader Comments (6)
I believed to know from Visitthebest known things is a drop, unknown things is like a sea.
there will be a permanent rise in dot tv valuation soon take my word for it. dot tv will boom, but then, it may fail too!
well let it go. Dot tv might becomme a dot com http://www.ledbazar.com
@Led, maybe so...but the facts will show we have been waiting for a very long time.
Have you ever heard, It isn't over until the fat lady sings"? Well, we still have a mountain to climb, the journey has been tough, but more is being done in the extension than ever before. While those who speculate with those dot tv names considered premium by Verisign might have a tougher time making some money off the sale of their names, plenty of people are enjoying sales in the X,XXX and XX,XXX regions. Watch as the TV and Internet become one in the same and the Internet can be easily browsed from any TV. This should alos generate more interest in the dot tv extension for new and existing media companies.
@Kevin...
I hear you but I would even argue further that the entire domain market has been shot with ICANN's decision to basically open up to nay domain extension you could imagine.
Now it's not a question of Dot TV surviving...it's whether the domaining as we know it will survive.