.cast
Is .cast a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.cast is contested: 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital, Google Registry, Intercap and Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Three of the four already run TLDs, 17.14M names between them. One runs one of .cast's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .show. Link Freedom Group runs none.
Will names sell?
A natural ending for podcasters and streamers, but rival endings already serve that crowd, so it stays a niche pick that needs explaining.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .cast’s closest 2012 strings hold .stream 15K, .show 19K and .radio 3K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .stream, held 15,464 names, June 2026. .show held 18,933; .radio held 2,996. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet almost exactly: a short, polysemous everyday English verb for the act of distributing media, sold as an identity suffix to broadcasters and content producers who already say the word daily, and it only works if that verb habit transfers from content vocabulary to address space.
Also a generic verb/noun naming a unit of produced media that entertainment and creator businesses would put their primary identity in front of, though it sells the finished program rather than the act of transmitting it, so the buyer skews producer/network rather than distributor.
A plain medium noun bought by the same class of buyer — stations, networks and program-makers naming themselves after how they reach an audience — but it names an established, incumbent-owned medium rather than an open verb, so it carries community-ownership pressure that a neutral verb like the target does not.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .cast included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × Intercap
- Link Freedom Group × Intercap
- Intercap × Google Registry
- Identity Digital × Google Registry
podcasters, live-streamers, video creators, and broadcast-adjacent media brands wanting a short verb-like ending for a show or streaming product; secondarily casting agencies and fishing/angling hobby brands.
What a .cast domain is
.cast is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .cast domain extension real yet?
.cast is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .cast domain?
You can’t yet. A .cast name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .cast was .stream, delegated on 18 March 2016.
Is .cast a real TLD?
Not yet. .cast is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .cast is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
CRRI2564-T92719 · Charleston Road Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-36 IRI2679T-T39169 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-36 LFGL2683T-T36653 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-36 SS2654T-T33516 · Hair Apparent, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-36
“.cast · Lifestyle · “Share your story with the world.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string has genuine semantic pull: 'cast' sits inside podcast, broadcast, livecast, and screencast, and creator-economy naming already leans on that root (by analogy, several well-known podcast and streaming apps embed 'cast' in their brand names). That suggests real registration demand from show names and streaming tools over the next 5 years. It is not in the 50-69 band because the audio/video creator category already has entrenched TLD habits: by analogy, .tv and .fm function as the recognized endings for video and podcast identities, and .live and .stream absorbed much of the adjacent demand without either becoming a primary-identity default; a newcomer verb TLD would likely land behind them, competing on price and novelty rather than as a default identity, with a thin aftermarket. It is not in the 10-29 band because the demand is not event-driven or joke-like: shows and streaming products launch continuously, the string reads cleanly as a suffix (name.cast parses like 'podcast'), and multi-meaning demand (casting for actors, metal casting, angling) adds a long tail. Registration volume for the applicant is unknown; pricing strategy is unknown. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed a large portfolio in the 2026 round and lists this string under 'Lifestyle' with the tagline 'Share your story with the world.', which signals a broad consumer positioning rather than a focused creator-tools push; portfolio-scale operation gives no particular signal either way on category-specific marketing depth. Main market uncertainty: whether podcast and streaming platforms' own subdomain/handle systems (creators identifying by platform handle rather than owned domain) leave enough appetite for standalone domains in this category at all.