.tv - Verisign

Verisign

The domain is currently operated by dotTV, a Verisign company; the Tuvalu government owns twenty percent of the company. In 2000, Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name ".tv" for $50 million in royalties over a 12-year period. The Tuvalu government receives a quarterly payment of US$1 million for use of the top-level domain.

On December 14, 2006, VeriSign announced an alliance with Demand Media, run by ex-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.

On March 16, 2010, Sedo announced that it teamed up with Verisign to hold an exclusive auction on April 1 for 115 premium .TV domain names that would carry standard non-premium annual renewals regardless of the closing auction price. On March 19, Verisign announced that premium .TV names would now be available through an expanded .TV registrar channel, slashed prices on premium .TV names, and made a significant number of high sought after premium .TV names non-premium. As a result, Verisign essentially lifted the roadblock that previously discouraged investment in the .TV extension by major domainers, investors, and developers.

Because of VeriSign's involvement, and the fact that VeriSign is based in the United States, it is subject to United States law. The first .tv domains were seized by the U.S. government as part of Operation Fake Sweep prior to Super Bowl XLVI.

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