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TheDomains.com

Verisign Renews Contract With Tuvalu To Run .TV Registry Through 2021

February 25, 2012 by Michael Berkens

I have confirmed that Verisign has they have signed an extension with the government of Tuvalu to operate the ccTLD domain name extension .TV through December 31, 2021.

Prior to the extension, Verisign’s agreement with Tuvalu to operate the .TV ccTLD, only ran through 2016.

During the most recent Verisign earnings call, they listed signing the renewal of the .TV contract of one of Verisign’s accomplishments in 2011.  However no further details were given.  Moreover I haven’t read or seen any announcement of the renewal of the contract anywhere.

However, after several emails to contacts at Verisign we were able to get confirmation of the extension of the contract.

In recent years there have been some stories coming out of the government of Tuvalu,  that they were unhappy with the contract they had with Verisign from which reportedly they make some $2 Million dollars a year in fees and threatened not to renew the contract.

Now that they contract has been renewed it should give .TV investors a lot more comfort in their investment and continued management over their .TV domain names.

Verisign did not release any additional information about the contract including what amount it would be paying the government under the renewal.

 

 

Filed Under: .tv

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

« Google Loses UDRP On Youtube.com.pe
First 7 Figure .TV Domain Name Sale To Be Reported “Within A Week To A Fortune 500 Company”?? »

Comments

  1. Samit says

    February 25, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    Excellent news for .TV enthusiasts, provides some stability going forward.

    Now the naysayers will have to find something else to complain about when it comes to .tv 😉

    Now if they’d only grandfather out legacy premiums…

  2. Together.TV says

    February 25, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    Great news – I’m relieved to hear it.

  3. Leonard Brit says

    February 25, 2012 at 1:25 pm

    Yes, good news indeed. .COM is still king but I have noticed increased usage of .TV in TV programming. Recently there have been a number of reported .TV sales on DNJ but the aftermarket for .TV domains is certainly much smaller than .COM.

  4. ^^^^^^^^ BreakingNewsBlog.TV ^^^^^^^^ says

    February 25, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    but, please, cut a bit the .TV domains’ prices

  5. Robert Clinee says

    February 25, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    why don’t we have news about this

    this weekend ?

    .CO Internet take on industry titans .com

    http://www.worldfinance.com/markets/co-internet-take-on-industry-titans-com/

    very industry changing stuff.

  6. donnied says

    February 25, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    Great news for .tv.
    Even if I think this was the only reasonable way to end the situation it’s good that happen 4 years befor 2016.

  7. boobtube says

    February 25, 2012 at 6:19 pm

    so did tuvalu get any offers of more than 2 million/yr for the rights to run .tv post 2016?

    you know the the answer.

    how much did vrsn pay to keep them onboard?

    not enough to be a material contract in their next report to the sec.

    good deal for vrsn.

  8. 5D.TV says

    February 25, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    Aftermarket prices for decent .tv domains just increased with this news.

  9. LindaM says

    February 26, 2012 at 12:34 am

    Ok big corps, form an orderly queue.

  10. Cartoonz says

    February 26, 2012 at 1:29 am

    am I the only one that thinks Tuvalu was/is? getting totally screwed at $2M a year?

  11. Richard Kligman says

    February 26, 2012 at 5:57 am

    Excellent News! Although I wasn’t really concerned 🙂

    I also wish they would lower the costs. It would help the extension to continue to gain traction.

  12. ri.sk says

    February 26, 2012 at 6:06 am

    The .tv extension is excellent, and i’m sure this news will be warmly
    received by .tv owners. I regret letting scotland.tv ‘drop’ some years
    ago, and whilst it will never worry ‘.com’, I believe .tv is the greatest
    ccTLD ‘contender’ there could ever be…

  13. Jeff says

    February 26, 2012 at 6:27 am

    IMO, our values had shot up and demand will pick up for of our portfolios. While this was somewhat of a nice surprise when they renewed the contract with 4 years left on existing contract. I will take it.

    Since the gold rush, land rush we are seeing new cash flow rolling into the .tv extension. Demand is up and now this news. Good news for long term investors in the extension.

    To be honest I was looking to exit in 4 years on .tv and ahead of the contract. Now that it got renewed and now it looks more promising then ever before. I will keep focused on my .tv portfolio and .com names.

    Now lets all raise our glasses and can we say a fuck yeah! I did! Fuck yeah! Onto the next deal and many deals to look over. New game then ever before.

    Lots of money will be made and now .tv extension is more stable then ever before.IMO. It all boils down to ROI.

    There is money to be made in the extension. Opportunity each day.

  14. First 7-figure .tv sale to be reported to dnjournal within one week says

    February 26, 2012 at 8:20 am

    just waiting for payment to escrow acct.

    buyer is fortune 500 corp., domain is two word financial term

    that’s all for now

  15. Richard Kligman says

    February 26, 2012 at 8:26 am

    Wow!! Congrats!!

  16. domains says

    February 26, 2012 at 8:30 am

    hmm.. stockmarket.tv ?

  17. domains says

    February 26, 2012 at 8:36 am

    or StockExchange.tv possible

    in the meantime we had heard all these rumors and chatter before. I hope its not bs but we shall see

  18. RH says

    February 26, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Dr Chris Hartnett owns StockMarket.tv and turned down $250,000 doubt he would not post here under his own name so I doubt it is StockMarket.tv.

    @cartoonz They did not get a piece of the company when it got sold way back.
    * Contract info
    In 1999, the Government of Tuvalu signed a contract

    with USA based DotTV Corporation International to market and manage

    its ccTLD ‘.tv’ indefinitely. In return for the exclusive rights to sell

    second-level domain addresses, the Government would receive US$1

    million per quarter for 12.5 years and 20% equity in the company.

    To 30 September 2000, the Government duly received five quarterly

    payments of US$1 million, plus a one-off lump sum payment of

    US$12.5 million after the principal investor, Idealabs Inc. Pasadena,

    California, exercised a call option under the agreement. In late 2000,

    the Government arranged with DotTV Corporation to forego quarterly

    payments for the December quarter of 2000 and the first two

    quarters of 2001, to acquire US$3 million of preferred stock in the

    corporation. In mid-2001, the DotTV Corporation ran into financial

    difficulties and in December 2001 the company was purchased by

    VeriSign, Inc., the domain administrator for “.com.” Tuvalu’s share

    of the sale amounted to about US$10 million, which was received as

    a lump sum. The new contract with Verisign provides Tuvalu with

    US$2.2 million per annum plus 5% of all revenue exceeding US$20

    million sales per year. VeriSign holds the rights to market ‘.tv’ for 15

    years. The contract expires Dec 31,2016.

    Source: GOT.

  19. unknowndomainer says

    February 26, 2012 at 2:45 pm

    Privatejet.tv?

    Oh, financial term….

  20. domains says

    February 26, 2012 at 2:50 pm

    @RH

    yes we are fully aware who owns what. It said 2 financial word term. I predicted 2 names and still saying these 2 names as a “prediction”

  21. domo sapiens says

    February 26, 2012 at 3:05 pm

    expect more of the same for this catatonic Country Code…
    more pressure for all alternative extensions will come from the new gtlds…

    dilution.

  22. domains says

    February 26, 2012 at 3:08 pm

    I hardly doubt .tv extension will be diluted.

    Let them get these extra extensions out. .tv will gain more momentum imo.

  23. Samit says

    February 26, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    “First 7-figure .tv sale to be reported to dnjournal within one week

    just waiting for payment to escrow acct.

    buyer is fortune 500 corp., domain is two word financial term

    that’s all for now”

    CreditCard.TV ?

    Interesting info though, thanks for sharing!

  24. Jon Henderson says

    February 26, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    StockMarket.tv seems nowhere close to being worth 7 figures but people like domains got to believe I guess so there is hope for their crap domains.

    If Forex did not sell for 7 figures or even 6 I doubt stockmarket.tv is selling for that.

  25. Jon Henderson says

    February 26, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    Oh and what momentum has .tv gained ? Please provide real info not speculation.

  26. Jean Vieloux says

    February 26, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    CreditCard.tv for 7 figures ? why ? StockMarket.tv ? maybe worth $100,000 and thank you to whoever posted Chris Hartnett owned it as I did not know. He is savvy but 7 figures seems high

  27. Brett Moffitt says

    February 27, 2012 at 12:33 am

    @ John Henderson…. Is your head in the sand or are you just a cantankerous one eyed .com promoter?

    .tv sales over 20k a pretty common these days.. I see more .tv sales in the 20k range than I see in .net or .org

    open the other eye John. cheers mate.

  28. owen frager says

    February 27, 2012 at 12:45 am

    I think the concern is Tuvalo is a dictatorship
    any how f you watched the Oscars tonight we were told TV is now this
    http://youtu.be/P-KmP9sy1yE

  29. Carousel says

    February 27, 2012 at 4:52 am

    AutoInsurance.tv I guess..:)

  30. jlc says

    February 27, 2012 at 9:46 am

    While curating my site for the “tv everywhere” initative I run across more and more .tv sites for media companies using .tv. It’s not speculation.

    JLC

  31. Snoopy says

    February 29, 2012 at 7:10 am

    First 7-figure .tv sale to be reported to dnjournal within one week

    just waiting for payment to escrow acct.

    buyer is fortune 500 corp., domain is two word financial term

    that’s all for now

    ///////////////////////////////////

    Can you feel it? Its that wafting of .tv hot air once again….get registering folks, get buying the in aftermarket, max out those cc’s, the 7 figures .tv sales are on the way! You have 3 days before tv prices go Kaboom and reach for the skies!

  32. 7-figure .tv sale will not be reported to dnjournal says

    February 29, 2012 at 9:23 am

    at the 11th hour, they forced us to sign an NDA – sorry for the hype

    money has cleared escrow, $1.35mm (we picked up this domain for less than $2000, four years ago)

    good luck, all

  33. domo sapiens says

    February 29, 2012 at 11:30 am

    what a surprise!
    Shocking.

    hype:
    noun
    5.
    exaggerated publicity; hoopla.
    6.
    an ingenious or questionable claim, method, etc., used in advertising, promotion, or publicity to intensify the effect.
    7.
    a swindle, deception, or trick.

  34. Snoopy says

    February 29, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    Why is it that people feel the need to constantly make up sales in .tv? Is it because,

    a) Many .tv investors are easily fooled?
    b) Sellers think they will be able to sell their .tv’s if they make up a couple of sales?
    c) People feel if there is talk about sales things will be ok?
    d) They’ve been reading too many motivational books such as”Act like you have a 7 figure bank account and are a .tv millionaire”
    e) These people actually work for Verisign?
    f) These people actually don’t like .tv are are just having a laugh?
    g) The people who make up the sales have delusions of grandeur?
    h) They’d like the prove a point that obviously isn’t provable?

    Please choose one or more of the above.

  35. LindaM says

    February 29, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    @ Snoop, who knows. I suspect a combination of f & g with the added “too much time on their hands”. Im not sure its particularly useful to spend much time speculating on the crazed rantings of a madman.

    @ Louise nah I doubt very much verisign had a hand in that sad wheeze. Theyve never bothered to do much promotion or marketing with .tv before why start now.

    I do have a few observations though:
    1) Few people (that I noticed) said anything like “I’ll eat my hat if that is true”, its not completely unbelievably impossible and people know it and left themselves a get out.
    2) Now that we can see the ‘sale’ is likely BS – as if the lack of a 7 figure sale is proof, it is heartening to see a return to normal programming – .tv is rubbish, nothing to see here, move along everyone. 🙂

  36. Kon says

    February 29, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    Owen said tuvali is a dictatorship which bbrings me to my next questions:

    Does verisign have any control over the dot tv domain name extension? For example,

    What would happen if Tuvali stopped operating the domain name in accordance with Verisigns terms of service?

    Does Verisign have the power to take over in this type of situation?

  37. owen frager says

    March 3, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    The answer is that I don’t know but you can assume they’d be talking to someone who looks like this:
    http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Sacha-cohen-dictator.jpg

  38. Snoopy says

    March 6, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    “What would happen if Tuvali stopped operating the domain name in accordance with Verisigns terms of service?”

    /////////////////////////////

    Then the vast majority of domains would fall in value from $0 to $0. Not sure anyone really cares (the people buying it probably don’t), if it died tomorrow it would probably deserve a couple of techcrunch stories and that is it. The extension for domainers is toast anyway aside from the very peak and few make money in it.

  39. unknowndomainer says

    March 7, 2012 at 2:39 am

    @Snoop

    “Then the vast majority of domains would fall in value from $0 to $0.”

    I’m glad you didn’t qualify this with .TV domains because I think the ramifications would be cross TLD.

    It would impact just about every TLD that didn’t have a permanent enforceable statute – it would impact .CO, .WS, and any other repurposed ccTLD (though the .LY seem to be doing ok). It would also impact every single gTLD because I doubt the contract will say “we promise to be here forever more la la li”.

    In other words – maybe there’s too much at stake for anyone to really let anything too crazy happen.

    WHO exactly guarantees that .COM will never have any issues? And if there is an entity protecting the .COM, how long would it take to resolve potential major conflicts?

    Oh, right, just like banks, the internet is too big to fail, right?

  40. CybeRealities says

    March 7, 2012 at 1:36 pm

    Hi folks,

    I can declare StockExchange.TV was not involved in this transaction, anyway we are open to similar kind of proposals .

    Robert

  41. Snoopy says

    March 8, 2012 at 6:18 am

    WHO exactly guarantees that .COM will never have any issues? And if there is an entity protecting the .COM, how long would it take to resolve potential major conflicts?

    ///////////////////////////

    Dealing with the US government is a fair bit different to dealing with Tuvalu.

  42. Snoopy says

    March 8, 2012 at 6:22 am

    “CybeRealities
    Hi folks,

    I can declare StockExchange.TV was not involved in this transaction, anyway we are open to similar kind of proposals .

    Robert”

    ///////////////

    I can declare that you are desperate and dateless.

  43. unknowndomainer says

    March 8, 2012 at 8:00 am

    “Dealing with the US government is a fair bit different to dealing with Tuvalu.”

    That it probably is, and in your experience, Snoopy, which is worse?

  44. CybeRealities says

    March 8, 2012 at 11:08 am

    “CybeRealities
    Hi folks,

    I can declare StockExchange.TV was not involved in this transaction, anyway we are open to similar kind of proposals .

    Robert”

    ///////////////

    I can declare that you are desperate and dateless.

    —————-

    Whats your problem you pesky snoopy boy? , actually you are desparate global TV hater , already famous even here.
    Have you ever sold anything above 100 usd , I higly doubt. max 120,9.
    Enjoy your momet of DN blog comments, probably your major success ever.


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