18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Prototypical answer:

As previously noted, .weatherchannel will be used primarily to market new TWC products and services to its user base. Examples may include the marketing of new television shows (e.g. CoastGuardAlaska.weatherchannel), digital product launches, promotions, etc. A secondary use for the .weatherchannel gTLD will be for internal communication, perhaps including a company intranet site or other employee-related portal.

To accomplish the stated goal of the .weatherchannel TLD of brand⁄product marketing, TWC has the potential to utilize its reach across TV and digital platforms (160 million unduplicated users monthly) to publicize the existence of the .weatherchannel TLD. For marketing, TWC may utilize:
* Promotional videos on The Weather Channel TV network and on digital platforms;
* Banner advertising placements on the weather.com site and TWC mobile platforms;
* Mobile text message and promotional messages distributed to its mobile users; and
* Advertisements on third party services.

TWC faces intense competition for the attention of consumers. The company competes with broadcast and cable television networks, large online⁄mobile properties, and a long tail of online⁄mobile publishers. The .weatherchannel TLD will help strengthen TWCʹs brand in the minds of media users as the authoritative source for accurate and timely weather-related information.

The .weatherchannel TLD has the potential to increase innovation and differentiation in the media space by showcasing an innovative new way to market and promote consumer media products and brands. Consumers will be provided a more intuitive internet-based channel through which to communicate with media brands like TWC.

Registration policies will be formulated in compliance with ICANN mandates with TWC in complete control of the allocation of second-level names. TWC intends for second-level registrations to be used only for the companyʹs own initiatives and does not plan for registrar distribution to the public.

TWC does not initially intend to employ geographic names as a part of the .weatherchannel strategy. Should TWC elect to do so in the future, it will consult with and seek the approval of ICANN, as required.

As a media company, TWC is subject to regulation and is expected to rigorously protect customer and corporate data, and TWC will apply these same high standards to the operation of .weatherchannel. Though there will be no consumer registrations in .weatherchannel, the flow of data to and from customers via .weatherchannel will be aggressively protected.

TWC is accredited by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTeʹs requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of personal information from internet users.

TWC has also implemented a privacy policy to demonstrate its commitment to the protection of user privacy and confidential information. TWCʹs Privacy Statement includes provisions regarding collection, use, transfer and storage of personal data as well as protection of childrenʹs privacy.

As the .weatherchannel gTLD will be available only to TWC, initially, the amount of data that will be collected for the purposes of operating the gTLD and made publicly available in the Whois databasewhile compliant with Whois availability policieswill be very limited. TWC will comply with Specification 4 of the Registry Agreement by providing a publicly available and searchable Whois database. To prevent abuse of this tool, TWC will require database query users to read and agree to registration policy terms and conditions, including that the Whois database is provided for information purposes only and that the user agrees not to use the information for any other purpose, including enabling transmission of unsolicited commercial advertising or other communication.

Though TWC already employs measures to protect user privacy and confidential information, TWC will implement DNSSEC as a further benefit both TWC an its end users, with the intention to validate data transmissions between those who use the DNS to publish information and those who retrieve it from the new .weatherchannel gTLD.

TWC will continue to rigorously apply current security measures and will comply with future ICANN-required policies as required.

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