.tv Domain
The Original Video Domain
Register your .tv domain from just £33.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Anyone worldwide may register a .tv domain, with no residency or industry test. The constraints are on which names you can have and what you may do with the subdomains underneath them. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .tv domain?
The .tv domain is technically the country code for Tuvalu, but it became one of the internet's most recognisable media extensions long before streaming was mainstream. Major broadcasters, YouTube creators, and production companies have used .tv for over two decades. Its association with television and video content is so strong that most people don't know (or care) about its Pacific Island origins.
Who should register .tv?
Broadcasters, YouTube creators, production companies, streaming services, and video content brands.
Why choose .tv?
- Over 20 years of media recognition
- One of the most established media TLDs
- Trusted by major broadcasters worldwide
- Short and universally understood
Who runs .tv, and since when
Registry data from the .tv delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Country-code (ccTLD)
- Registry operator
- Ministry of Transport, Energy, Communications and Innovations
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1996
- Delegated 18 March 1996
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, though the registry keeps an unpublished restricted list
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £33.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How .tv outgrew Tuvalu, and who runs it now
Everyone who writes about the .tv domain reaches for the same fact, that it belongs to Tuvalu, and then stops. The part worth your attention is what happened next. Because the extension has been used generically for so long, Google no longer treats it as a country signal at all. Its own documentation names .tv in the short list of country codes it reads as generic, which means a .tv address will not be interpreted as a Pacific site, and equally will not be read as a British one.
That is the practical difference between .tv and a real geographic extension. A .co.uk tells a search engine your audience is in the UK. A .tv tells it nothing about place, and everything about subject, because close to thirty years of broadcasters, streamers and production companies have taught the audience what it means. You are buying recognition, not geography.
The registry changed hands, and the policies came with it
IANA delegated .tv on 18 March 1996 and the manager on record is still Tuvalu's Ministry of Transport, Energy, Communications and Innovations. The commercial operation is contracted out, and that contract moved recently. The Government of Tuvalu ran a competitive tender in December 2021, chose GoDaddy Registry over the previous operator Verisign, signed on 30 March 2022 and relaunched the extension on 15 November 2022, pointed squarely at creators rather than broadcasters.
Nothing broke for existing holders, but the published rules are now GoDaddy Registry's, and three of them catch people out. Some labels are restricted rather than reserved, the restricted list is not published, and registering one needs a proposal the registry may approve or decline without giving reasons. Desirable names can be designated premium at the registry's discretion and carry a higher fee for creation and renewal, so a premium name is a permanently higher annual bill rather than a one-off. And the acceptable use policy forbids selling, licensing or otherwise letting third parties use subdomains of your domain for commercial purposes, which quietly rules out the creator-platform model where every user gets their own name under yours.
None of that should put off a video business. It should stop you building a business model on a .tv without reading the two policy documents first, both of which are published on the registry's own site and linked below.
We also treat some vanity ccTLDs (such as .tv and .me) as gTLDs, as we've found that users and website owners frequently see these as being more generic than country-targeted.
What that means if you are buying one
This settles the question people actually worry about: a .tv will not make Google think your site is aimed at Tuvalu. The flip side is the part buyers miss. Generic means no country signal in either direction, so if your audience is British you are giving up the local advantage a .co.uk would have handed you for a fraction of the price.
Who is allowed to register .tv?
Anyone worldwide may register a .tv domain, with no residency or industry test. The constraints are on which names you can have and what you may do with the subdomains underneath them.
- No eligibility criteria
- The registration policy sets no residency, nationality or business requirement. What it does require is that you provide true and accurate details, and it allows an application to be rejected where information is incomplete or verification fails.
- Reserved and restricted labels
- EXAMPLE, NIC, RDDS, WWW and WHOIS are reserved at every level. Beyond those, the registry maintains a separate list of restricted labels which it states will not be published. Registering one needs a proposal explaining your grounds and intended use, and the decision is at the registry's absolute discretion with no reason given.
- Premium names renew at premium prices
- The registry may designate a desirable name as premium at any time, and a premium name may carry a higher than standard fee for creation and renewal. Where several people want the same name it may go to auction rather than to whoever asked first, with the auction fee separate from the registration fee.
- You may not sell subdomains
- The acceptable use policy states you shall not sell, license or otherwise permit third party use of any subdomains of your domain in exchange for consideration of any kind or otherwise for a commercial purpose. If your plan is to give each customer their own address under your .tv as a paid feature, this rules it out.
- If the rules are broken
- The registry may cancel, lock, place on hold, transfer or delete a domain where it determines the policy has been breached, and states that action may be taken with or without notification to you and that it is not required to give reasons.
Rules taken from the .tv registration and acceptable use policies. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .tv the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.tv works well if
- Video is the product rather than one of your services, and you want an audience to know that from the address alone.
- You publish to an international audience across streaming platforms, so a UK-specific extension would narrow you rather than help you.
- The name is short and will appear as an on-screen credit, a lower third or a channel handle, where three characters after the dot beat eight.
- You want an extension people already recognise, rather than one you would have to explain in every introduction.
Look elsewhere if
- Your customers are UK businesses or UK consumers searching locally. Google treats .tv as generic, so it gives you no country signal at all, while a .co.uk does.
- The name you want is designated premium. That is not a one-off premium, it is a raised fee at every renewal for as long as you hold it.
- Your business plan involves handing customers their own subdomain for money. The acceptable use policy prohibits it.
- You want an address with no dependency on somebody else's arrangements. This one rests on an ISO country code and on a registry contract that has already changed hands once.
If the address has to be permanent and unremarkable, take the .com as the main home and point the .tv at it. See .com pricing.
.tv vs .co.uk: which should you register?
This is the decision a British production company, agency or channel actually faces, and it is a straight swap of one advantage for another.
.co.uk buys you local search. Google says plainly that a country-code extension is a strong signal that a site is intended for that country, and .co.uk is the one British customers type from memory. It is also far cheaper each year, transfers between registrars almost instantly because a .uk transfer is an IPS tag change, and it comes with free WHOIS privacy under Nominet's rules, which no other extension here offers.
.tv buys you recognition. An audience that watches things understands the extension without being told, and that reading holds internationally in a way .co.uk never will. The cost is the country signal you give up, because Google reads .tv as generic.
Our steer for a UK video business selling to UK clients is the .co.uk as the main address with the .tv held for the channel, the showreel or the campaign. If your work sells across borders and clients find you through platforms rather than local search, invert it.
| .tv | .co.uk | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Country-code, used generically | UK country-code |
| In the root zone since | 1996 | 1985 |
| How Google reads it | Generic, no country signal | United Kingdom |
| Transfer time | Hours to a few days | Near instant, IPS tag change |
| WHOIS privacy | Paid add-on | Free for UK individuals |
| Annual cost | High, higher on premium names | Low |
.tv domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .tv domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyIt is the registered country-code extension for Tuvalu, and Google does not treat it as one. IANA records the manager as Tuvalu's Ministry of Transport, Energy, Communications and Innovations, so the country connection is real on paper. In search terms it behaves as a generic extension, because Google lists .tv among the country codes it treats as generic rather than country-targeted. Your site will not be read as Tuvaluan, and it will not be read as British either.
It is neutral, which for a UK-focused business is a cost. Google treats .tv as generic, so it carries no geographic signal in either direction, while a .co.uk tells Google the site is intended for a British audience. If most of your enquiries come from people searching in the UK, that missing signal is the strongest argument for keeping a .co.uk as the primary address and using the .tv for the channel or showreel.
GoDaddy Registry, under contract to the Government of Tuvalu. Tuvalu ran a competitive tender in December 2021, selected GoDaddy Registry over the previous operator Verisign, signed the contract on 30 March 2022 and relaunched the extension on 15 November 2022. Existing registrations carried across unaffected, but the registration policy and acceptable use policy that govern .tv today are GoDaddy Registry's, published in October 2022.
The registry can designate any desirable name as a premium domain, and a premium name may carry a higher than standard fee for both creation and renewal. That second half is the part people miss: the raised price is not a one-off entry fee, it repeats every year for as long as you hold the name. The registry can also release premium names by application rather than first come first served, with contention settled at auction.
Not for money. The .tv acceptable use policy states you shall not sell, license or otherwise permit third party use of subdomains of your domain in exchange for consideration of any kind or otherwise for a commercial purpose. That rules out the model where every creator or client on your platform gets their own name under your .tv as a paid feature. If that is the plan, build it on an extension whose registry does not prohibit it, and check that policy before you write the code.
Yes. You will need the authorisation code from your current registrar, and the domain must be unlocked and more than 60 days past registration or its last transfer. Expect hours to a few days rather than the near-instant IPS tag change a .uk gets. Your remaining registration period carries over and a year is added. Free DNS management, email forwarding and one free 10GB mailbox are included, and our support runs seven days a week including evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
Included with Your .tv Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Media & Content Domains Extensions
Register your .tv domain today
Secure your .tv domain from just £33.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
