Town of Clark, Texas Renamed DISH

[Ivan Seeking]

CHICAGO (AFP) - A Texas town has changed its name to DISH in exchange for 10 years of free satellite television service.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051116/od_afp/afplifestyleus_051116182138


This message brought to you by the country of Coca Cola.

 

[Pengwuino]

This is a sad day indeed...

I can't believe the state of Kinkos would allow such a travesty.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The small island nation of Tavula is making a fortune for use of its .tv internet address. I know that so far it has paid for a new highway, and I think improvements to the airport.

 

[Pengwuino]

What's the story behind that?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What's the story behind that?

The greatest lucky strike in the entire history of Tavula? I guess it [.tv] was assigned to the island long before anyone realized the marketing value. They are terribly poor and you can see why a .tv address is very desirable.

 

[Pengwuino]

So are they getting some sort of royalties for every site that has a .tv domain??

Guess I should have named an island "Combabwe" or "Netine".

 

[edward]

In Arizona, Tucson School District One is putting advertisements on the sides of school buses to help pay for fuel.

The problem with that is that people are not used to seeing ads on school buses. They are confused about whether they are really school buses, and drivers are not always stopping when they should.

Perhaps the biggest brightest sign on the Buses should read:

THIS IS REALLY A SCHOOL BUS

 

[Pengwuino]

haha, route 35: brought to you by AOL Time Warner.

 

[edward]

haha, route 35: brought to you by AOL Time Warner.

AHH YUP

 

[Evo]

I've just got to wonder, how many people are going to buy Dish TV because some town no one has ever heard of sold out for free service?

If anything, it's turned me off.

 

[Cosmo16]

Evo- we're talking about it arn't we

 

[scott1]

In 10 years,after direct tv will cancell there free tv deal,Clark,Texas wil be back and Dish,Texas will be gone.

 

[Evo]

Evo- we're talking about it arn't we

But not in a positive way.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I've just got to wonder, how many people are going to buy Dish TV because some town no one has ever heard of sold out for free service?

If anything, it's turned me off.

The news coverage alone is probably worth the investment as far as advertsing goes. There is only one problem that I see here: The town is called Dish - for Dish TV -

In 10 years,after direct tv will cancell there free tv deal,Clark,Texas wil be back and Dish,Texas will be gone

but already we see people confusing it with Direct TV. Sorry scott1 but that struck me as funny considering the investment by Dish. I'm sure that this is all about name recognition.

Remember Mr. Whipple? I hated that guy but I probably still remember every commercial. And who could forget what he's pitching?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Of course you know that they have already tried to put giant billboards in orbit. If and when they finally get away with this, you will look up at the night sky and see "Buy Hyundai" blocking the stars.

 

[Pengwuino]

-
but already we see people confusing it with Direct TV. Sorry scott1 but that struck me as funny considering the investment by Dish. I'm sure that this is all about name recognition.

Even negative publicity is good :D... well, except if you're confusing it with your rival lol.

Hell what do you think they got in value... 125 people... probably 40 houses at the most... normally like, what, $500 a year for 10 years each... wow that's actually a ~$200,000 "investment". Probably less since small farm towns wouldn't exactly obey the 3.5ish person/house average. Probably in reality more of a $20,000 investment considering its just services they are "producing" and the articles about it will probably reach millions of people along with all the conversations like this one :)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I think scott1 just demonstrated why Dish TV did this.

 

[abhishek]

The small island nation of Tavula is making a fortune for use of its .tv internet address. I know that so far it has paid for a new highway, and I think improvements to the airport.

It's Tuvalu.

 

[Moonbear]

I think scott1 just demonstrated why Dish TV did this.

I don't know...maybe they should have come up with a better name for their company rather than trying to name a town after them. I hear "dish" and if it's in the right context of TVs, then I think generic satellite dish...good advertisement for satellite vs cable, but not for a particular company. Out of context, my first association with the word or name "dish" is dinner plates.

I object to deals like this because it completely drives out any chance of competition from a town. Once everyone has free Dish TV, do you think they'd even consider paying for a different provider or getting cable? And in 10 years, the cable company still won't have run cables there if they can't get any business, so you still won't have the option to switch even if you want to then. I have the same issue when Coke buys out schools and part of the deal is the school can't sell any beverages not made by Coca Cola. Y'know, some of us don't like Coke products and would like some other choices in the cafeteria! So, I get coffee.

 

[matthyaouw]

I don't know...maybe they should have come up with a better name for their company rather than trying to name a town after them.

Or they could have just named their company "Clark, Texas"

 

[Astronuc]

What's the story behind that?

Actually the name of the country is Tuvalu

Each country gets a two letter code, which was done when countries were given a two letter designation. Tuvalu got TV, which is very appealing to TV-media organizations who wish to use it for their websites.

Background -
http://www.icann.org/cctlds/

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html
http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm

Back in 2000, DotTV approached the government of Tuvalu with idea of purchasing or licensing ".tv"

NEWLY RICH BUT STILL ANGRY TUVALU LOOKING AT BECOMING REPUBLIC
http://www.tuvaluislands.com/news/archives/2000/2000-02-21a.htm

Island nation cashes in on ".tv" country code

By The Associated Press
Special to CNET News.com
April 8, 2000, 1:50 p.m. PT

PASADENA, Calif.--The tiny, financially strapped Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu has cashed in on the alphabetic quirk that assigned it with the ubiquitous ".tv" Internet country code.

DotTV has agreed to pay Tuvalu $50 million in royalties over the next decade for use of the country code. The Internet start-up intends to sell the rights to Web addresses ending in ".tv," such as www.abc.tv[/url] or [PLAIN]www.law&order.tv .

see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/message/145 for full article.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hey, Tavula Tavala...

 

[scott1]

I don't know...maybe they should have come up with a better name for their company rather than trying to name a town after them. I hear "dish" and if it's in the right context of TVs, then I think generic satellite dish...good advertisement for satellite vs cable, but not for a particular company. Out of context, my first association with the word or name "dish" is dinner plates.
I object to deals like this because it completely drives out any chance of competition from a town. Once everyone has free Dish TV, do you think they'd even consider paying for a different provider or getting cable? And in 10 years, the cable company still won't have run cables there if they can't get any business, so you still won't have the option to switch even if you want to then. I have the same issue when Coke buys out schools and part of the deal is the school can't sell any beverages not made by Coca Cola. Y'know, some of us don't like Coke products and would like some other choices in the cafeteria! So, I get coffee.

The town is pretty remote there's only about 200 people that live I don't think they cabel compines are going spend millons of dollars to get cable to small town like clar...I mean Dish,Texas

 

[Astronuc]

OK - the weirdness continues -

The tiny hamlet of Santa, Idaho will vote tonight on whether to change their town's name to "SecretSanta.com."

from Marketplace.org - http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/11/21/PM200511218.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So are town names going competitive like internet addresses?

I'm grabbing Microsoft Oregon.

And while I'm thinking of it, why is there no George, Washington?