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DStv dominates African applications for new internet names

By , Editor, ITWeb Africa
Africa , 13 Jun 2012

DStv dominates African applications for new internet names

Television channels associated with broadcaster DStv dominate a list of applications from Africa for new top level internet domain names.

In what is set to be the biggest shake up of online naming conventions yet, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Wednesday revealed a list of proposed generic top-level domain names (gTLDs).

The likes of .com and .co.za have become commonplace, but the number of the gTLDs is set to explode in coming years, with new potential names such as .africa, .joburg, .mtn and even .lamborghini having been applied for.

ICANN said that of the 1930 applications for names worldwide, 911 applications came from North America, 675 from Europe, 303 from the Asia-Pacific region, 24 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 17 from Africa.

African broadcaster DStv, which operates in 47 countries, has submitted the most applications from the continent, with names on the list including .dstv, .multichoice, .mnet, .africamagic, .kyknet, .supersport, .mzansimagic and .gotv.

Naspers, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed media company that owns DStv, has also applied for .naspers, according to the ICANN list.

Both DStv and Naspers join well known organisations across the globe such the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Microsoft, which have have submitted applications to ICANN.

And the cost for an organisation or brand to stake a claim of its own piece of the internet does not come cheap - applications alone cost $185000 per domain.

“In order to protect your brand you absolutely have to take out the top level domain”, John Kotsaftis, DStv Online chief executive, told ITWeb Africa.

He further said that the company already spends “millions” of Rands on marketing.

“If you work out the cost of that versus the amount of money we spend building a brand up, it’s really a drop in the ocean”

Kotsaftis says that DStv is still considering as to what it could do with the domains upon their successful registration - which could happen in 2013.

But experts are already saying that the broadcaster’s move to apply for such a high number of domain names could be a sign of an increasing focus on streaming content, to join the likes of US-based Hulu and Netflix.

“It doesn’t necessarily suggest they are going that route, but they certainly don’t want to be caught in a situation where if they decide to go that route that they haven’t taken out insurance,” says the managing director of World Wide Worx, Arthur Goldstuck.

“They recognise that the future of broadcasting is an IP future; so, the internet will be a key transmission channel for broadcast content, once we have a fibre-rich environment,” he told ITWeb Africa.

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