The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is proud to announce that the .radio Community Top Level Domain name (TLD) has been formally delegated to EBU by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) on 21 July 2016.

The EBU is delighted to have been recognized as the organisation to administer the .radio TLD in consultation with other sister organizations. This will be undertaken for the benefit of the radio community worldwide.

Reaching this position has involved a long journey, following the initial application by the EBU in April 2012. The successful outcome was made possible thanks to the full endorsement of the eight broadcasting unions which form the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) and other radio associations and organisations, such as the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and the Association of European Radios (AER). The launch of .radio has been delayed by 18 months whilst competing bids were scrutinized.

“The EBU has fought strongly to obtain administration rights for .radio and we are very pleased that ICANN has approved our application to run this extraordinary CommunityTop Level Domain,” said Ingrid Deltenre, Director General of the EBU.

The .radio TLD is one of the few recognized community-based resource representing the interests of around 65,000 radio stations, 60,000 web radios, and others closely associated with the sector.  Beneficiaries of this new TLD will include licensed broadcasters, radio stations from across the world, unions and related organizations, trade-mark owners, licensed radio amateurs, web radios and radio professionals.

The EBU will soon launch and coordinate a governance body (World Radio Advisory Board, WRAB) to manage this new internet space together with the representatives of the main radio organizations which supported the EBU application.

It is anticipated that the launch of the .radio TLD will take place during the first few months of 2017.