.tv is the country code domain for tuvalu, a small pacific island chain of 10,000 people. When country code domains were assigned years ago, nobody knew how valuable domain names were to become.
A us company approached the island with a deal to manage .tv, and rebranded it as a television domain. Smart move, made lots of money, and transformed the gnp of Tuvalu.
I think these domains are perfectly safe and the right domains could be very valuable. There are television related organizations around the world who have re-branded themselves around their .tv domain.
I think the same thing has happened with other tlds. I think Moldova was pushing .md as a domain for doctors, and so on. Poor countries treat the domain name space like they charge airlines for rights to their airspace to make some money