.tv
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| Introduced | 1996 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | The .tv Corporation (a Verisign company) |
| Sponsor | Government of Tuvalu |
| Intended use | Entities connected with Tuvalu |
| Actual use | Marketed commercially for use in television or video-related sites; can be registered and used for any purpose; little use in Tuvalu |
| Registration restrictions | None |
| Structure | Direct second-level registrations are allowed; some second-level domains such as gov.tv are reserved for third-level domains representing entities in Tuvalu |
| Dispute policies | UDRP |
| Website | Verisign TV Registry |
The domain name .tv is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Tuvalu.
Except for reserved names like com.tv, net.tv, org.tv and others, any person may register second-level domains in TV. The domain name is popular, and thus economically valuable, because it is an abbreviation of the word television.
Following Tuvalu being allocated two-letter top-level Internet domain suffix, .tv, the Government of Tuvalu worked with the International Telecommunications Union and established a process to select a management partner for the domain suffix.
On 6 August 1998 a licencing agreement was signed with Information.CA of Toronto under which it agreed to pay an up-front payment of US$50 million for exclusive marketing rights to Tuvalu's domain until 2048, with the country manager/delegee of the Government of Tuvalu for the .tv extension being The .tv Corporation International, which was established in 1998. Subsequent negotiations with Information.CA followed from the delays in payment of US$50 million. Idealab, a Californian company, became involved in 1999 and assumed the $50 million obligation to be paid over 10 years. With the first $1 million payment, Tuvalu was finally able to afford to join the United Nations. Lou Kerner became the first employee of .tv when he joined as CEO in January 2000. .tv grew to over 100 employees, with offices in Los Angeles, London, and Hong Kong, before being acquired in a nine figure transaction in December, 2001.
The .tv Corporation entered into an agreement with VeriSign Inc for the marketing of the domain. In December 2001, The .tv Corporation was sold to VeriSign in a nine figure transaction. As of 31 December 2001, The .tv Corporation International became a subsidiary of VeriSign Inc. Tuvalu sold its equity stake in The .tv Corporation to VeriSign for which it was paid US$10 million. Following the acquisition of the corporation by VeriSign the quarterly payments made to the Government of Tuvalu were reduced to US$550,000 per quarter, which payment arrangement continued for 12 years.
On 14 December 2006, Verisign announced an alliance with Demand Media, run by former MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt to market the .tv top level domain name (TLD) as the preferred Web address for rich media content. ".TV" premium names cannot be transferred to another registrar. Annual renewal fees for .TV premium names are the same as the initial "buy now" registration fee.
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