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eTV.com going to Auction
July 6th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
Move over IPhone.com here comes eTV.com. The multiple million dollar sale of IPhone.com last week rocked the Apple world. Apple tried to keep it secret that they paid millions for the domain. There are so many people registering IPhone names it is giving Apple and even harder time to police their trademark. Over 4,000 “IPhone” domains have been registered since the IPhone announcement in January. Apple thought IPhone.org would hold them over but then they bent to the demand of the tens of thousands of visitors each day which thought Apple’s IPhone information would be at www.IPhone.com website. It is impossible to launch a brand now days without having the dot com. Apple was forced by all the built in branding of dot com to go buy the generic domain.
eTV.com is just like iPhone.com. It will one day be a product, the question is not IF, but WHEN. Buying it now would be an excellent move, it is a generic brand that a large media company can bank for the future. ETV.com is exclusively on the auction block at the Domain Roundtable in August. The starting bid is $899,000. We have a strict rule about only having 20 domains in the whole auction that will have a reserve over $100,000. We know eTV is worth at least $2M. The potential branding is excellent. Short three character domains normally sell at several thousand dollars. But when those three letter domains mean something significant the price shoots up. It is like buying a masterpiece from the sixteenth century. They don’t make any more of these dotcom domain names and there availability keeps going down.
Some might think, iTV.com would be a natural for Apple. However Apple was asleep with locking up the “I” domain names several years ago. Apple will need to figure something else out if they ever wanted an iTV to exist in the future. Although I don’t see Apple as a bidder for eTV. There is too much “I” branding inside Apple that their own customers would be too confused. No, this domain will go to another big media company. If Yahoo, Google, or Microsoft launch something this would be a natural for them. eTV is the perfect brand for a company to bring TV to people through the Internet. As Standard TV dies a quick death I see that the next incarnation of TV will replace it. Good bye Rabbit Ears, hello eTV.
If any large companies want to buy this future brand asset, now is the time. eTV.com will be at the live auction in August at the Domain Roundtable with a reserve price of $899,000. This domain is not getting cheaper after the auction. We have talked the seller down to a below value price so that the domain can have multiple bidders.
BTW, A Rupert Murdock company swallowed iTV.com and that domain is permanently off the market now. MTV.com has been on the market for a while too. 
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Posted in Domain Auction, DomainTools Auction |
July 7th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Apple sort of already has the iTv, they just call it Apple TV i beleive http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?spart=MB189LL%2FA
July 7th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I am trying to enter a name but every time I do, I get a message come up telling me that my reserve is not high enough, the minimum is
$1,000. I know this and the reserve I am quoting is actually $25,000 but I still keep getting the message. What do I do? Ted.
UPDATE BY JAY: I have not checked but try with out a comma or dollar sign, “25000″. I am not sure that is the problem but we will check on it. Let us know.
July 7th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
…. (deleted)
EDIT/UPDATE BY JAY: Please no solicitations directly on our blog.
July 7th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
…. (deleted)
EDIT/UPDATE BY JAY: Please no solicitations directly on our blog.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:32 am
I cannot delete a name if it shows up anywhere other than the first page, since you always have to update the pages before you can add or delete, and when you update the page the lsit goes back into alphabetical order. I’ve submitted a report on this but no answer as of yet.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:34 am
Hi, any idea when the list will be finalized and if some of my names make the cut? I have a substantial pending offer on one of them, but would rather auction it off if that is a possibility. The other reason is depending on how many of my names make it will determine if I make the trip to Seattle. Thanks.
July 9th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
What do you think of the .tv extension in terms of gaining traction and the value going up?
Tony Colan
RSS.tv | Tony.tv | Buckeye.tv |
UPDATE BY JAY: Those TV names are good. You can submit those to auction.
July 10th, 2007 at 1:22 am
itv.com is hardly Rupert Murdoch (although he is sniffing around the company). ITV is a major TV channel in the UK, although it only acquired the itv.com name in 2001 as someone else had got it first. Not sure how much *that* baby sold for, but you can betcha it was a *lot*.
July 10th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I would appreciate it if you would contact me regarding your upcoming domain auction… i have several great domains that i might be willing to part with, such as laweb.com (the web in spanish), membershipdues.com and a bunch in the “music/record” space, including recordcollection.com and recordstore.com….
but before i potentially put them up for auction, i would like to discuss first (even if by email, which oyu have from my username/login).
i am posting here as there isn’t a link on your site that i can find to “contact” you by…
thanks, i look forward to hearing from you….
July 10th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I have several domains that i might be willing to place in your auction, but would like to discuss them with you first, even if it is via email :-)…. domain names such as:
laweb.com and .net (”the web” in spanish)
membershipdues.com
mobilguides.com and .net
and a bunch in the “music” space, including….
recordcollection.com
recordstore.com
i post here ’cause there isn’t a link on the site to contact you by…
July 10th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I have done some quick internet research of “ETV,” and, wow, the term seems all over the place. I see mostly media (Educational TV and a network in the UK having to do with entertainment). I have also seen some sites discussing computer hardware.
No one seems to have a definitive handle on the term, so it would be a great opportunity for a large corporation to snap this up and give Apple a run for its money (or maybe even Apple itself will bite since it’s highly unlikely iTV will part with its domain).
I would think that the winning bidder would want to use this domain to either roll out an awesome phone tv product or launch a major new network. I’m not sure what Google or Yahoo! would do with the domain name, but I’m sure that one of their think tanks could think of something memorable. It will definitely be interesting to see what company wins the domain.
Best, jss
July 12th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
We are considering auctioning the domain:
MajorSports.com
It’s been in our portfolio since 1997, celebrating a 10 year anniversary in May. We have no pressing need to sell. But given the current auction marketplace, we’re thinking this domain would make great sense as an acquisition by a major media company.
Is the time right?
UPDATE BY JAY: It all depends. I asked a guy who sold a name for over a million dollars why he sold it and he replied, he could make more money by leveraging the fresh money. He sold it for 7 years earnings. But when he leveraged that money in real estate the bank provided a 20/80 loan. He was able to borrow several millions more from the bank and buy a few properties. Those properties appreciate much faster then his domain would have, plus it is leveraged money.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Jay, I have some incredible, high profile ccTLDs that I would like to put up in the auction. Domains like: cancer.md, depression.md, women.cc, weather.cc, jewelry.cc, hawaii.tv, reporters.tv, collegegirls.tv, music.tm, travel.tm, and many more. Do these have a shot? Dot-TV is hot right now because of video streaming and enom’s efforts with me.tv. Your thoughts, please. Thank you for your consideration. Keep up the great work!
UPDATE BY JAY: It all depends on the reserve. We saw Mortgage.mobi only sell for $25,000. The reserve will need to be low. There is not a lot of traffic on those CC or TV domains. I would put the reserve at $5,000 or just consider holding them for a few more years.