As you can see from my signature I disagree wholeheartedly.
That doesn't mean the naysayers (re IDN's) are wrong it just means that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I happen to disagree on this one.
The uptake of .tv within the asian countries has been notable. Commonly such registrations are within the registrants native language - i.e the domains registered are IDN's.
For example, take an equivalent english generic that fits the extension and note the number of foreign networks that have bought and developed a dot tv extension for that generic - "newspaper" in chinese is a good example - note the number of chinese networks that have bought and developed [network]news.tv
The uptake of .tv by the Korean market is also disproportionate to population.
All this despite the fact the IE6 is not compatible with IDN's and registration of IDN's is a pain in the %^$*.
What everyone has to understand is that .tv is not a sure thing until it is a sure thing. But risk is relative to return! IMHO you are speculating even if you buy premium english language .tv domain names - but the language of your domain name whilst not irrelevant is largely insignificant - it's just that when you buy an IDN you target a different market....native language speakers that aren't American.
Why should it be considered more risky than buying an english domain name particularly if you buy a premium IDN? If you were Korean I'm sure you would prefer to search for and read Korean websites.
And what is the advantage? A lot of the premium equivalent names are available at $21US reg fee.
Want a specific example, check out the offers that manga.tv has received on Sedo.
Hopefully this works
http://www.sedo.com/search/details.php4?tracked=&partnerid=&language=us&domain=manga.tv
First surprising thing - the number of offers for a .tv extension. The second surprising thing - "manga" is the English representation of the Japanese word for comic (loosely translated) - you can see the characters for the word in Japanese (native language) in my signature below.
So why was I prepared to take the risk on the Japanese spelling. For me this was simply a question of (1) would the japanese rather look up manga or spell the term in their native language? (2) Does the native term get searched. Check digitalpoint and check out the stats for yourself. (3) Does the word fit the TLD?
IMO - All boxes ticked, but you are welcome to disagree!
So in summary if you are happy to take the risk speculate with high keywords (in that language), do your homework and buy names that fit the TLD. Your investment will be no worse than the vast majority of recent .tv purchases - particulary those that are undeveloped.
