.tv is the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...

(ccTLD) for

Tuvalu Tuvalu ( ) is an island country in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands (which belong to the Solomon Islands), northeast of Van ...

. The domain name is popular, and thus economically valuable, because TV also happens to be an

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

of the word ''

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

''. In 1998, the government of Tuvalu sought to capitalize on the .tv suffix, later signing with the

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)In the other common languages of the ITU: * * is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information ...

, Information.CA, Idealab, Verisign, and currently GoDaddy to expand the domain. Except for reserved names like com.tv, net.tv, org.tv and others, anyone may register

second-level domain In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in , is the second-level domain of the TLD. Second-level domains commonly refer to the organ ...

s under .tv. By 2019, 8.4% of the revenue of the government of Tuvalu came from .tv royalties, with hundreds of thousands of websites registered under the domain.

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

treats .tv as a

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of ev ...

(gTLD) because "users and website owners frequently see he domainas being more generic than country targeted."

History

Background and creation

As a small island-nation, Tuvalu used to have a low yearly income, which would eventually change with the local government's creation of the .tv domain. The domain was implemented and issued in the 1980s, after which the government of Tuvalu cooperated with the

to find a marketing partner for the domain. In 1998, the .tv Corporation was established as the exclusive .tv domain registrar under the management of Information.CA of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, which agreed to pay US$50 million upfront to manage and market .tv registrations until 2048. Following delays in payment, in 1999, the contract was reassigned to the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

-based Idealab, which agreed to pay $12.5 million of the $50 million upfront and the remainder in $1 million quarterly payments over a 10-year licensing contract. After a $5 million quarterly payment in January 2000, the company's subsequent poor financial performance resulted in the transfer of $3 million in preferred .tv stock to the government of Tuvalu in exchange for waiving three quarterly payments.

Marketing and use

On 31 December 2001, the company was acquired by

Verisign Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the , , and generic top-level d ...

for $45 million, including $10 million for Tuvalu's $3 million stake in the company. Quarterly payments were renegotiated from $1 million to $550,000 and extended to last until 2011. On 19 March 2010, Verisign reduced .tv registration fees to encourage widespread adoption of the domain. In 2011, Verisign renewed its contract with the government of Tuvalu to manage .tv registrations through 2021. In 2014, Amazon acquired

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

for $1 billion, making it the first .tv website to achieve

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

status. The government of Tuvalu subsequently renegotiated its contract with Verisign, resulting in an increase in yearly payments to Tuvalu around $5 million, a 1/12th of the nation's annual gross national income (GNI) at the time. As Verisign opted not to renew its contract, on 14 December 2021,

GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet Domain name registry, domain registry, Domain name registrar, domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. GoDaddy is the world's fif ...

signed a contract with the government of Tuvalu to manage .tv registrations, increasing yearly payments to the government of Tuvalu to $10 million. In 2023, an agreement between the Government of Tuvalu and the GoDaddy Company outsourced the marketing, sales, promotion and branding of the .tv domain to the

Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation (TTC) is a state-owned enterprise of Tuvalu, which provides fixed-line telephone communications to subscribers on each of the islands of Tuvalu. Each island in Tuvalu relies on TTC for the use of a satellite ...

, which established a .tv Unit.

Benefits

In 2019, the island of Tuvalu gained an estimated $5.5 million from the domain, along with other business practices like fishing. Proceedings from .tv domain registrations are used to fund the Tuvaluan government's Future Now Project (), which provides mitigation plans for infrastructure and maritime boundaries affected by climate change, digitization of cultural heritage and maintenance of the domain and related intellectual property's active status.

Content stations

Websites with the .tv domain often feature video content for specific brands or firms. The domain contains the sites of news services, including

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

and

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. It also includes streaming services such as

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

, and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The domain also contains the website

, and the Eurovision Song Contest.

co.tv

In July 2011,

removed .co.tv websites from its search results due to their extensive use by website scammers. This had no impact on other .tv websites. According to Lucian Constantin at Softpedia, "CO.TV is a free domain provider that is obviously being abused by the people behind this campaign. All of the rogue domains used are hosted on the same IP address."

Climate change

The island state of Tuvalu's long-term habitability is threatened by

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, with the island being barely above sea level. In response to the question of what would happen if a nation-state would cease to exist, the

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

board stated: "If the code element is removed, the ccTLD would be eligible for retirement. Reason for removal is not of relevance." This means that the top-level domain would be dissolved if the country were to disappear, eventually needing to be recreated as a

gTLD Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of ev ...

for television and video media (thus making its actual use official), maintained elsewhere—such as in the United States, like .com, .org, .net, and other generic-use domains.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tv Internet properties established in 1996 Communications in Tuvalu Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries members Country code top-level domains Domain hacks sv:Toppdomän#T