Ever try to find the site of your favorite TV show by typing in the domain name? More often than not, you’ll discover that the show and/or operating company does not own the exact domain. There are probably many reasons for this but most likely because the show has it’s own mini-site on the broadcasting channel’s official website, i.e. ABC.com. Still, with the amount of loot spent on advertising and marketing, it would be worth the money to pick up the exact match domain. Below is a list of 22 of today’s most popular television shows that I believe are dropping the ball by ignoring the domain that is out there and available in most cases. Most of the domains might not be blatantly for sale, but all domains have a price. I’m sure there are dozens more, but these are some quick ones I found.
SouthPark.com – Forwards to Simon.com, Simon Malls and Property Group
TheBigBangTheory.com – Parked, for sale
TheOffice.com – Forwards to Dexagon.com web design services in Toronto, ON
Workaholics.com – Parked, for sale
SonsofAnarchy.com – Parked
LawAndOrder.com – Parked
TopShot.com – Amateur looking photography site
ItsAlwaysSunny.com – FX owns ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia.com but this shorter more marketable version is owned by Sunny Realty Services
EastBoundandDown.com – Parked
DancingWithTheStars.com – Parked
ModernFamily.com – Very small parenting site, monetization type site.
Xfactor.com – Parked
NewGirl.com – Google 404 error
JerseyShore.com – Monetization site.
NCIS.com – forwards to EastCentralLivestock.com, which is for sale
CriminalMinds.com – Parked, for sale thru domainnamesales.com
Weeds.com – monetization site for, well, weeds. Probably for sale.
MadMen.com – Forwards to FMA.com, Future Media Architects
DeadliestCatch.com- Parked
These next 3 are the worst in my opinion, because they are all owned by the operating company but the domains do not forward or resolve to anything…
HowIMetYourMother.com
CurbYourEnthusiasm.com
Glee.com
While I agree with some of those you’ve pointed out, most people don’t know that South Park is a real town in Colorado. So while it may not be good for Trey Parker and Matt Stone that the show isn’t associated with SouthPark.com, it could be good for the Real Estate company that does own it. (Obviously that’s subjective depending on what people go to the site looking for….)
Excellent article. Agree 100%. How can glee.com not resolve ? With the popularity of the show they got to have something for their fans.
The parked names that don’t really have another meaning like South Park or The office, can probably be won in a UDRP. Its foolish to park them IMO.
I could count on my left hand the number of domains in this list where the producers of the show might have a case to acquire the corresponding name.
The fact is that TV shows, by their nature, generally have a rather generic sounding name consisting of a coined phrase or term of some sort. It’s part of the show’s brand. However, in this day and age, most, if not all, .com domains consisting of a generic phrase or something to that effect are taken, and they won’t come cheap to an interested party