domains ICANN slashes new gTLD revenues by 57%, forecasts renewals at 25% to 50%

[News]

According to a draft 2016 budget published this morning, the organization now reckons it will get just $300,000 from new gTLD registry transaction fees in the year ending June 30, 2015.

That’s down 75% from the $1.2 million predicted by its FY 2015 budget, which was approved in December.

The new budget anticipates $12.7 million from fixed registry fees in FY15, down 24% from the $16.7 million in its adopted FY15 budget.

Registrar transaction fees are now anticipated at $1.1 million, compared to $2 million and $3.2 million predicted by the adopted and draft FY15 budgets respectively.

With just a few months left until the end of the fiscal year, there are currently fewer than 4.5 million domains in published new gTLD zone files.

ICANN plainly no longer expects new gTLDs to get anywhere close to 15 million domains.

The 2016 budget expects renewals at just 50% for regular gTLDs and 25% for registries — presumably ICANN has .xyz in mind — that gave away domains for free at launch.

ICANN said it is is assuming that it will start the year with 602 registries and end it with 945.

Full Article: http://domainincite.com/18191-icann-slashes-new-gtld-revenues-by-57-forecasts-renewals-at-25-to-50