There has been some serious domain name squatting - buying a domain name hoping to sell it for profit - and it involves some of the biggest television stations in the U.S. A Florida man, who apparently has no ties to television, bought up 285 four letter domains that end in .tv. Now he means to cash out and GoDaddy.com is handling the auction. It's all perfectly legal, but television stations spend millions to develop their brands and can't be too happy about having to bid to buy their call letters.
The call-letter domains include WCAU-TV Philadelphia and WTVJ-TV Miami, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KTVT-TV Dallas/Ft. Worth, and KCCO-TV Minneapolis/St. Paul, WTTW.TV (using the call letters of the famous PBS station in Chicago), WXIA.TV (the NBC station in Atlanta), and WDIV.TV (the NBC affiliate in Detroit).
Domain Name Squatting
Mass .TV Auctions on GoDaddy.com
Trend Themes
1. Domain Name Squatting - Opportunity for innovative methods of preventing or combatting domain name squatting.
2. Mass .TV Auctions - Potential for disruptive platforms that offer more transparent and fair processes for domain auctions.
3. Brand Protection - Growing demand for services and technologies that safeguard the brand identities of businesses and organizations online.
Industry Implications
1. Television Broadcasting - Disruption potential in creating unique strategies for securing call-letter domains and protecting brand equity.
2. Domain Name Registrars - Opportunity to develop improved mechanisms and policies to prevent domain name squatting and promote fair auctions.
3. Brand Management - Increasing need for innovative tools and services to monitor online brand presence and prevent unauthorized use of domains.