Back in December Mike wrote about how GM.tv and 13.tv were being held back and reserved by Verisign.
At the time Verisign said they were holding these back for promotional purposes. In the past Verisign did this with a few other short .tv domains like G.tv.
Domain Name: G.TV
Domain ID: 97041820
Updated Date: 2012-05-10T18:50:28Z
Creation Date: 2011-05-27T04:01:07Z
Expiration Date: 2021-05-27T04:01:07Z
Sponsoring Registrar: .TV RESERVED DOMAINS
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 9998
Domain Status: SERVER-UPDATE-PROHIBITED
Name Server: No nameserver
DNSSEC: Unsigned delegation
So a couple weeks back HD.tv was supposed to drop and the same thing happened. I called Verisign but the person on the phone did not want to speak about it and wanted me to email the marketing department.
Here is that back and forth:
Dear Raymond,
Thank you for inquiry regarding reserved .TV Domains. .TV reserved domains are domains that are not available for purchase because these domains are reserved. These domains are reserved at the registry level for use in specialized promotions aimed at generating significant brand awareness and adoption of the .tv tld. Please visit the following link for more information regarding .TV domain names.
Jaipal
Customer Service
Verisign
I know what reserved domains are, I am asking are you going to reserve all L and LL.tv domains ? Like you reserved Gm.tv and Hd.tv. Right now Fa.tv and Tw.tv are in redemption, will they be reserved ? Thank you
Raymond,
Thank you for contacting Verisign Support. Unfortunately we do cannot disclose what domains may or may not be reserved in the future. Those decisions will be made by the appropriate teams within the company when they determine there is a need or reason to do so.
If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best Regards,
Phil
Customer Service
Verisign
VerisignInc.com
So now I have another person replying, Phil, to which I asked, So what you are saying is you are not holding back all L.tv and LL.tv domains that are dropping ? I want to know if any will drop you should be able to answer that question.
Raymond,
Thank you for contacting Verisign Support. Unfortunately that information is not available to the public. We cannot tell you if a domain will be reserved or not. We apologize we cannot assist you with any addition information on this.
If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best Regards,
Phil
Customer Service
Verisign
This is getting borderline ridiculous, I am asking you is there policy where Verisign is now holding back all L.tv and LL.tv either you are or you aren’t.
No reply after that, but all of a sudden all 2 character.tv domains became unavailable to register. So names that were available like 9L.tv or n6.tv which usually went for $400 to $500 on Name.com as a one time premium, are not available to register.
I have been covering .tv for a long time, Verisign can do what they want that’s fine they own it. At least be honest with those that participate in the extension, people have money for instance tied up on backorders at Name.com. If they know these names are being reserved then they can release the backorder at Name.com and get a refund. For instance the HD.tv back order got released, if someone wanted to back order right now Name.com would charge them $450, not everyone in the world reads this blog, so someone could go and see the back order who may not be on top of everything and tie up $450 for no reason.
So if you are holding everything back, just say so, you at least owe your customers that.
Verisign seem intent on doing all they can to hold back .tv.
From the original premium fees to the legacy fees not being grand fathered,the stupid system where by you can’t transfer a premium name to another registrar and now the reserving of l and ll.tv names.
Any success .tv has had upto this point is despite them and in no way at all because of anything they have done.
I would of loved to have seen .tv marketed in the fantastic way that .co was.
I just confirmed with a “premium .tv registrar”; all two-character .tv domains that were previously available to register for a first-year premium price are GONE. If you already have a one or two character .tv domain, it is yours for as long as you continue to pay registration fees, or you can transfer (sell) your registration to another party and they can continue to pay registration fees.
This effectively makes both one and two character .tv domains that are registered and for sale or in-use, VERY, VERY Valuable.
Wish I would have grabbed a couple while I had the chance:-(
I almost had a similar problem when my domain name TODAY.TV expired. Enom ( part of Verisign ) did not send me any renewal notices. Luckily I saw this whilst still in the redemption period. They told me if it expires it won’t be available for registration but will be reserved first by Verisign and then released when they decide on pricing. This happens to all premium names.
I wish I had bought these two letter .tv names when they were available for registration.
Interesting that Verisign uses the reason that they are just following “industry standards” for this latest change. As if.
I own 3 of these 2 character .tv domains and I too wish Id bagged a few more while they were available. Not sure if they are of any particular value tbh – mine have been for sale and between them rarely fielded an offer above reg fee.
They are “nice” domains to have and I guess if supply now is seriously limited and can only go down due to all non-intercepted drops being retained and reserved by the registry maybe the value or perception thereof will indeed increase. In any case its something else to write in a reply to the next absurd $10 offer I get on them 😀
As of today, some 30 ll.tv drops were spotted:
None of them made available so far.