Time is running out to get your dot radio domain name

Act quickly. One month left.

Apply for controlled .radio domain names before October 31, or you may miss out.

There’s only one Capital.radio domain name available.

Who will get it?

Maybe Capital Radio London or lovers of the now defunct Capital Radio in South Africa. Perhaps it will be Capital Radio Uganda, Sudan, or Kenya. Perhaps Kevin Blyton’s Capital Radio Network in Australia.

Or perhaps it will be a cyber squatter or some startup internet group that wants to stream its service to the world’s capital cities.

You see the problem.

Around the world, many radio stations have adopted the same names: KIIS, Sea, Hot, Classic, and so on.

When the Dot Radio upper level domain name goes to free-for-all access after October 31 2017, just over a month away, anyone will be able to buy a .radio domain name freely on the internet. Will some upstart steal your brand?

When the Dot Radio domain name was first released (see our previous coverage), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) won the right to vet applicants in the first year to make sure that real broadcast radio stations get first choice of names related to their companies and to prevent cyber-squatters hoarding names then selling them later at inflated prices. But after a year, Dot Radio domain name purchasing will revert to being available online just like any other .com, .com.au, .biz, .org, or other domains.

EBU sources have told radioinfo that applications from Australia, New Zealand and Asia are quite low compared to applications from Europe, America and other parts of the world. They have asked us to alert anyone who wants a .radio domain name to act fast so that they get first option on it, before it is opened up to anyone in the world.

The EBU explains the approval process like this:

Managers of radio stations should request a .radio domain(s) during the launch from 23rd August to 31th October 2017. The EBU believes radio stations should be the focus of this new space on the internet, and consider them as our highest priority. 

If, for instance, a radio station and a web radio request the same domain, the radio station will be allowed to purchase it (providing it resembles the station name).

During this launch phase, the process is not ‘first come, first served’. The .radio team will seek to optimize domain name allocation to solve contentious issues and prioritize existing radio services. 

The price for registering a .radio domain name will be different for companies and individuals. It will depend on the registrar offering the product, since registrars themselves define their price and their marketing policy. It also depends whether some additional services are included in the yearly fee (like hosting, mailing).

For companies, we expect typical prices between 200€ and 250€ per domain each year. For individuals, the price will be much lower at around 25€.

How to get it?

To request a .radio domain, interested parties should contact a registrar (company selling internet domains) providing it has signed an agreement to sell .radio domains, or the EBU directly which will act as a reseller (www.register.radio). At any time, an owner of a domain can transfer it from a registrar to another.

For more info, click here, or ask your web manager to check more information with your Internet Service Provider.

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