.Radio enters general availability today – Speculators are not welcomed!

.Radio entered General Availability today (from 15 November 2017 12:00 AM UTC). .Radio is not welcoming domain name speculators and its pricing seems a bit complicated.

According to Namestat .radio gained 1,614 registrations during the Pioneer and Sunrise periods across 52 countries and 18 registrars, now standing at 1,636 in the zonefile this morning.

.radio is a new top-level domain which is exclusively dedicated to radio stations, web radios, radio professionals, companies selling radio goods and services and radio amateurs.

.Radio is managed by the European Broadcasting Union and claims to be one of the few recognized community-based resources representing the interests of around 65,000 radio stations, 60,000 web radios and others closely associated with the sector.

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

The World .Radio Advisory Board will help to ensure an optimum governance for this new internet extension reserved for the Radio Community. Policies are available here.

The first come, first served principle applies in General Availability.

No speculators, no cybersquatting: .Radio claims to have strong policies to ensure authenticity of all .radio domains. “Checks and controls will keep .radio safe.”

Cost?

The cost for registering a .radio domain name will be different for radio stations, internet radios, companies and for 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).

We expect typical costs between 200€ and 250€ per domain and per year. For individuals, there is a reduced cost of around 25€ but these domains should follow some formatting rules (callsign.radio or firstname-lastname.radio).

World Radio Community

On behalf of radio organizations across the globe, the European Broadcasting Union has been given the responsibility to establish, develop and create the domain for the benefit of all involved in the world of radio. The EBU is taking on this task in collaboration with sister unions, and other industry bodies who will be involved in defining the norms for domain name allocation.