domains The Rising Stakes in .TV Contract Square Off

[Alvin Brown]

​

While on Christmas break this week (if you can call it a break) , I’m catching up on my tech reading and stumbled upon a Washington Post article about the .TV contract set to renew in 2021.

The article — Tuvalu is a tiny island nation of 11,000 people. It’s cashing in thanks to Twitch. — is a good read about the rising stakes between Tuvalu and Verisign as the .TV contract due to the recent surge in streaming services over the last couple of years, with exponential growth slated in years to come.

[ Continue reading article ]​

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Thanks for sharing the article. It is interesting, but I can't help but feel that they're conflating the success of Twitch as perceived success of .TV.

Twitch own Twitch.com, which they could choose to switch to at any moment. I realise that they have clearly stuck with .TV for a reason, they won't be doing it for a laugh, but it might just be because they don't need to move or don't want to because it was on .TV since the beginning.

Just my thoughts

 

[abcproductions]

I predict domains ending in tv.com to increase in value much faster than .tv domains over the next decade.

 

[Alvin Brown]

Thanks for sharing the article. It is interesting, but I can't help but feel that they're conflating the success of Twitch as perceived success of .TV.

Twitch own Twitch.com, which they could choose to switch to at any moment. I realise that they have clearly stuck with .TV for a reason, they won't be doing it for a laugh, but it might just be because they don't need to move or don't want to because it was on .TV since the beginning.

Just my thoughts

Thanks for your comment and thoughts. Likely riding the coattails of Twitch, but I believe their main point of the article is that a showdown is brewing and certain.

 

[equity78]

Thanks for your comment and thoughts. Likely riding the coattails of Twitch, but I believe their main point of the article is that a showdown is brewing and certain.

Well since I have been covering this crazy extension for 15 years. I can weigh in a little. Tuvalu has always wanted more money, things have been contentious with Verisign for years. I agree with you Alvin that now with the popularity of Twitch and the like it's getting even more combative over money. In 2016 they got it renewed for 5 years and I am surprised it didn't go out for bid then.

For a look at the history of the extension and the actual contract which I tracked down from an obscure page on a government website.

https://tldinvestors.com/2011/02/the-history-of-the-dot-tv-extension.html

 

[equity78]

I predict domains ending in tv.com to increase in value much faster than .tv domains over the next decade.

Don't know why I follow both closely and there really have not been many tv.com sales the last couple years. Only one five figure and it was based on the previous website. BuddyTV.com.

 

[garptrader]

It has been said one does not need a .TV domain to put video on a website. Well, with the proliferation of social media, it could be said one does not need a domain to have a voice. What percentage of YouTube channels end up buying aftermarket .TV domains? Perhaps one in 250 thousand?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for pointing out interesting article @Alvin Brown. I had not realized the impending renewal or renegotiation. The TLD has seemed to continue strong and will be interesting to see what changes take place.
Bob

 

[abcproductions]

Don't know why I follow both closely and there really have not been many tv.com sales the last couple years. Only one five figure and it was based on the previous website. BuddyTV.com.

I'll tell you why. I've sold 14 domains ending in tv.com. 10 in the past 24 months. All five-letter .com. Highest price KODTV for $5250 and lowest AACTV for $1500. I also like three number plus tv names. I think Asian buyers/businesses will value LLLTV.com and NNNTV.com domains in the future. I made a similar prediction with four-letter and three-character.

 

[garptrader]

.TV registrations still depend largely on investors. If .COM renewals go from $8 to $8.50 it may boost VRSN revenue while having a minimal effect on the number of renewals. With .TV renewals already in the $30 range, raising renewal prices will result in a reduced number of registrations.

 

[Keith]

Don't know why I follow both closely and there really have not been many tv.com sales the last couple years. Only one five figure and it was based on the previous website. BuddyTV.com.

People don’t seem to want tv.com domains. As you are probably aware, I sold token.tv for 5 figures. They had zero interest in tokentv.com and it would’ve been cheap in comparison to the .tv.

 

[equity78]

I'll tell you why. I've sold 14 domains ending in tv.com. 10 in the past 24 months. All five-letter .com. Highest price KODTV for $5250 and lowest AACTV for $1500. I also like three number plus tv names. I think Asian buyers/businesses will value LLLTV.com and NNNTV.com domains in the future. I made a similar prediction with four-letter and three-character.

Congrats on the sales, it's an area I used to do quite a bit of business in. We used to have a thread dedicated to it in the old sub forum, it just hasn't seemed to be too active lately. Your KodTV.com would be the third highest sale over the last two years if reported. I think what @Keith pointed out about no interest in TokenTV.com was interesting. And a couple friends who are Chinese have told me they have seen decreased interest in TV in China.

Look I hope things pick up because it's a favored niche. Best of luck.

 

[garptrader]

My portfolio of keyword .TV and TV.com domains is perhaps a third of what it was several years ago as the demand for aftermarket Spanish domains is abysmal. Regardless, sales of keywordTV.com have been better than keyword .TV. Meanwhile .Com renewals are considerably lower than .TV. Regardless, I see no reason to look for expiring domains of either. With so many extensions and most end users ignorant of the domain aftermarket (all they want is a YouTube channel or Facebook page), I believe there are better opportunities outside of domain innvesting.

 

[donnied79]

What keeps many domainers away from .tv is the high renewal fees and the fact that is a "hard" extension to manage with basically zero chance to sell your domain to other domainers.
Most domainers are in love with easy money (that then become easy losses) and .tv is a very illiquid extension.
I have a lot of .tv that I'd hardly sell here for XXX and that I'm sure I'll sell for X.XXX or XX.XXX in the next years.
Regarding the contract they'll for sure find an agreement, maybe we're going to pay 1-2$ more a year.

 

[Vito]

Regardless, sales of keywordTV.com have been better than keyword .TV.

Wrong.

Just because you invested in something that is not performing as well as you'd like, please don't come in here and start making stuff up.

Go to NameBio, look up both of these (tv.com & .tv) in the past year, past 2 years, etc.
The results aren't even close.

I'm not worried about a new contract between Tuvalu and Verisign. One sale each year usually pays for an entire portfolio of renewals.

 

[garptrader]

Vito, I am not making anything up. My personal experience with a portfolio heavy in Spanish domains has seen more sales of TV.com domains than .TV. At one point I had close to 500 .TV domains but down sharply as sales do not justify carrying that large of a portfolio even if other investors end up picking the drops. Let them pay renewals for another 5-7 seven years with no sales.

 

[garptrader]

Despite my experience investing in .TV domains, I still believe they sound pretty awesome from a branding perspective - at least for a video oriented website. However, it can be an interesting exercise to research the YouTube channels that one follows and see what domain names they list in their About page. So I checked a number of video content creators I follow - some related to travel, others to fitness and several crypto channels. Many have no domain whatsoever but reference a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Telegram page. Some do have separate websites but generally on .Com. One had a double-hyphenated .com as their channel uses three words. While I did not go through the dozens of channels I follow I did not find any referencing a .TV domain in their YouTube About page. Well, I was not surprised by that finding.