Could New gTLDs Be Equivalent of Cable TV: Wolfe

Could the introduction of hundreds of new gTLDs be more or less the equivalent of cable, or subscription or digital, television? That’s the question Jennifer Wolfe poses in another of her posts on the ClickZ blog.

Using the American context, Wolfe remembers how there were only three TV channels back in her younger days – ABC, CBS and NBC. For thirty years there was little change in choice – the introduction of colour television and PBS, but then cable television came in the 1980s.

“Cable took over and segmented the entertainment industry so deeply that the hold those big three networks had over the population for decades would never be the same. Our now insatiable need for thousands of channels, not three, would change everything.”

She then writes how “when the Internet came along in the ’90s, we started out with just a few channels there, too. There was .GOV, which was for government sites. There was .EDU, which was for education, and .ORG for nonprofits. Of course, there was .COM, which stood for commerce. This was pretty much where everyone in business flocked because it was the only channel of the Internet that made any sense.” And in the rest of the world ccTLDs were a popular choice.

Over the next twenty years, just like with television before cable and its equivalents around the world there was little change. And in the last 15 months there have been hundreds of new gTLDs introduced, just like cable introduced hundreds of channels to television in the US, subscription or satellite often less in the rest of the world.

“The splintering of .COM into categories and segmentation are adding more choice and options to create digital spaces tailored to your needs as a consumer. You are no longer limited to one channel, but now hundreds more are available.”

Another benefit Wolfe gives is “for you as a consumer is that when a company or brand you trust operates their Dot Brand, you know it’s really them.”

And an opportunity for brands could allow customers “to build out your own pages within a brand you like or trust, for example: MY.LIFE or JENSCLOSET.MACYS. You’ll likely be able to remember certain digital addresses or campaigns more easily.”

And then “If you saw this billboard, you might remember it:

“Wolfe concludes:
And, if you want to build out your own digital space, you can find a way to self-define who you are, what you are about, and where you fit in the world among hundreds of possible channels. In the future, we may wonder how we ever lived in a world with so few channels of the Internet, just as kids today couldn’t imagine getting up off the couch to change the TV to one of three channels. While cable faces the inevitable decline into Internet-based entertainment, the Internet just got cable with hundreds of new channels.”

To read Jennifer Wolfe’s article in full, go to:
www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2405073/will-new-domain-extensions-be-to-the-internet-what-cable-was-to-television

 posted by David Goldstein