The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced in a press release that it is launching a new Top Level Domain (TLD) name – .radio – for the radio community which will progressively change the way people are reaching internet resources linked to radio.
.radio can be used for web and email addresses and will be managed by the EBU with the support of the other world broadcasting unions.
For four years the EBU and its partners have been preparing the launch of .radio. The project was endorsed by all the leading radio organizations in the world (including ABU, AER, AIB, AMARC, ASBU, AUB, CBU, EGTA, IAB, NABA, OTI, and URTI).
Exceptionally for the internet world, this project is a Community TLD, run for the benefit of the whole radio industry and amateur enthusiast and reserved for people and companies with active interest in the radio sector.
“We are proposing that the radio community may like to consider securing the integrity of their web presence by requesting appropriate .radio domains for defensive reasons initially,” says the EBU’s .radio TLD Manager Alain Artero.
“The TLD will be focused on content and matters specific to radio and we want to prevent speculators and cybersquatting in this TLD; this extension will therefore rapidly become a high-value internet space for websites, mail systems and other internet applications.”
The following categories will be accepted for the use of a .radio domain:
- Radio broadcasting stations
- Unions of Broadcasters
- Internet radios
- Radio Amateurs
- Radio professionals (journalists, radio hosts, DJs, …)
- Radio-related companies selling radio goods and services
More information is available in this LinkedIn post. The post notes,
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.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t say how much lower. I’d certainly be interested in obtaining kb6nu.radio, but not if it’s going to cost a lot more than the .com domain name that I currently own.
Kevin Culp says
Any idea how well the .radio domain has caught on amongst ham radio operators? After the initial announcement, I haven’t heard much about it.
Dan KB6NU says
i think that the reason you haven’t heard much about it is that hams are cheap. :) When I first posted this, the discounted rate had not yet been set. I just visited register.radio, and now see that they’re selling .radio domain names to hams for 25 euro. That’s not really expensive, but I think just expensive enough for hams not to want to pony up that much for one. If it was 10 euro, I’d be the first in line.