As I predicted, News Corp announces 21st Century Fox.
News Corp today announced that its entertainment business will be called 21st Century Fox.
Over the weekend I was willing to bet money that 21st Century Fox was in the works.
My suspicions started on April 10 when 20th Century Fox registered a number of domain names including 22ndCenturyFox.com, 23rdCenturyFox.com, etc.
Just a defensive branding play?
Perhaps, but then over the weekend I noticed that the company registered a large number of domains related to 21st Century Fox. These types of domains would not have been registered unless something was afoot.
Domain name registrations often times tip of business activity, whether it be merger talks, new corporate initiatives, or even winning contestants on TV shows.
20th Century Fox (or shall I say 21st) registered a lot of key domains. But it’s missing a biggie: 21stCenturyFox.com, which is registered to a South Carolina man.
And that is why you need a LONG outlook on thngs. It took 13 YEARS to make a common sense decision that should and could have been made at or even before the turn of the century. I guess 13 years of meetings finally did it!
Won’t “century 21” the real estate company be pissed off.
I wonder how long it will take before they file a UDRP for 21stCenturyFox dot com.
Soon to be a dating website!
Good call. I almost wrote in after your Sunday post on the subject so say I thought such a move was doubtful.
Eric – the only thing that caused doubt was not owning 21stcenturyfox.com. They simply registered too many other 21st domains for me to think it was something else.
I loved the JEOPARDY 1999 Saturday Night Live skit, many decades ago:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7msbl_saturday-night-live-jeopardy-1999_fun#.UW57F79LJuU
Art F-114: Movies for $10,000: “Major film studio that will change name next year.”
[ Laraine A-270 buzzes in ] Laraine?
Laraine A-270: “What is 20th Century Fox?”
It took a long time to play out!
Allen: I wonder how long it will take before they file a UDRP for 21stCenturyFox dot com.
How could they? They just registered the new name / trademark? And the current registrant has had the name for many years. Our business model depends Fox offering to pay for the name, no other expectaion should even be “put out there” verbally, written, or even thought! The only thing to think in this matter is “Cha-Ching” for the dating site owner. What would be a fair price? I say $75K keeps everyone happy.
@ Mark Hofmeister –
Not necessarily. If you consider the name potentially the next in a series, then Fox could have rights to it.
If I register Windows9.com in anticipation of a future Microsoft OS, that would be cybersquatting.
We need to get some grandfather laws in place for domain names purchased in good faith where the registrant simply had forethought and not mal intent. In my opinion.
@ Marc Hofmeister –
“We need to get some grandfather laws in place for domain names purchased in good faith where the registrant simply had forethought and not mal intent. In my opinion.”
There is protection. Under UDRP you have to show that the domain was registered in bad faith.