The .TV mystery

Thu Feb 02, 2012 2:06 pm » by **Edgarrothstein**

The domain name .tv is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the islands of Tuvalu.

Except for reserved names like com.tv, net.tv, org.tv and others, any person may register second-level domains in tv. The domain name is popular, and thus economically valuable, because it is an abbreviation of the word 'television'.

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.

http://www.tuvaluislands.com/photos/index.html

Seems like a nice place to spend a Christmas vacation...