Hi Friends,
I bought a .tv domain name last year for 19.99 but never got a chance to make my site ready last year, and today when I tried to renew it on godaddy, they asked me $39.99. I emailed them and they confirmed that the renewals for all .tv domains is $39.99.

I am really shocked that the renewals for .tv domain names which are pretty new is much more expensive then .com, .info etc. I understand video/media streaming sites are gaining popularity but I still see no reason to justify this price hike.

Do you think, I should release it and then buy it again? But I am worried, once I release it, godaddy might keep it saying they have backorders on it or something.

What do you guys suggest?

even if you do release it and there are not backorders on it godaddy will still hold it and put it up for auction. If it doesn't sell you will be able to re-register it litterally 6 months later at a minimum. Godaddy is really a pain when it comes to re-registering domains, i would personally recommend against it.

A certain country owns the rights to .tv if I am correct. And they might see it as a way for revenue.

Yep, Tuvalu. Originally they were paid $10M on a term lease for the rights to use the ccTLD which is quite a deal for a poor country.

Yeah Jeff seems you are right, found this on another internet forum -


.tv was never intended to be used by TV companies or programs - it is the tld for the dinky little nation of Tuvalu who lucked out when their name got abbreviated."

Well, you could also transfer it to another registrar that you like better, who has lower pricing. A transfer will add a year of registration to the domain..

Look around for another registrar that has a cheap transfer-in price.