Mediaboss Marketing

The hot media marketing strategy of the moment: land the rights to new Internet domain names.

Several major media corporations spent big on applications for new generic Top Level Domains, including three of the four American broadcast networks, the BBC and the Boston Globe, according to documents released Wednesday by ICANN. Included in the massive list of more than 1,900 applications released by ICANN on its "Reveal Day were submissions for .abc, .cbs, .fox, .hbo, .bbc, .boston and .showtime by the relevant companies. Guardian News & Media, the London-based publisher, spent the most, applying for four gTLDs: .guardian, .guardianmedia, .observer and .theguardian. Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, applied for two gTLDs in Chinese characters.

Most are defensive registrations, said Ron Jackson, publisher of the domain name trade publication DN Journal. Any of them would be crazy to move off the .com, but I could see them using their next brand extensions for specialized marketing campaigns and that sort of thing. A lot of major corporations, including Internet companies, did not see the need to own their brand name as a domain extension. Facebook did not apply for .facebook or any other TLDs.

The companies gave clues in their applications about how they might use the new domain names. Several suggested that they might use them internally as a safer, more secure way for the particular company to use the Internet.

ABC wrote that it might have a Revenge.ABC domain featuring new and/or promotional show content with an easy-to-remember domain name address. Fox suggested that Simpsons.fox and Avatar.fox may be coming soon, telling ICANN that it might use the .fox name for characters, news anchors or other individuals associated with the Fox Businesses, e.g., MARGESIMPSON.FOX, BILLOREILLY.FOX. CBS laid out a four stage rollout of .cbs and .showtime. The company would begin by using them internally, perhaps following up with strategies to potentially migrate traffic to CBS Domains new gTLDs, .CBS and .SHOWTIME. If it works,it may begin pushingits Web traffic away fromits .com sites, the company said. The applications also provided some insight into how these companies view their old-world assets in the digital age. ABC, for instance, wrote: Although it is unknown how the mobile-computer-TV viewing model will evolve, the company believes a crucial component of marketing and consuming ABC content will continue to involve and be built upon internet models and protocols.

Of all the media companies, HBO came closest to confirming Jackson's hunch about defensive strategies. Inits application, the company wrote that its top reason to get .HBO is to secure the renowned HBO brand in this new Internet space to ensure that only applicant and its affiliates are able to register and control the second-level domain names in the .HBO TLD.

Several big media companies NBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Associated Press, Reuters and Time did not apply for new domain names.

The Guardians efforts could run into some trouble. U.S.-based Guardian Life Insurance Company has also applied for the .Guardian gTLD. If the two companies cannot come to some agreement, they may duke it out in an auction that could escalate the price. Applying for the .Guardian Top Level Domain falls squarely within Guardian News & Medias transformation into a digital-first organization, arepresentative told POLITICO in a statement.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:53 p.m. on June 13, 2012.

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Media sites seek new domain names