Sci-Fi Channel to change its name to SyFy... WHY!?

[Craig]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 11:08pm

Sci-Fi Channel is changing their name to SyFy? Why? Don't we have enough illiteracy in this country? Stupidest press release too: http://www.syfy.com/press.html

[KingKong]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 11:10pm

They're doing it because they can't trademark SciFi. its a business decision.

[Bway3]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 11:29pm

I'm not shocked about anything that SciFi does since they put this on their channel,



WHAT is Sci-Fi about that?
Updated On: 3/16/09 at 11:29 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 11:29pm

Oh, Craig. Isn't it obvious "SyFy" broadens perceptions and embraces a wider and more diverse range of imagination-based entertainment including fantasy, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure, as well as science fiction?

Why on earth would you be against broadening perceptions?

My vote is we pronounce it Syphie!

Updated On: 3/16/09 at 11:29 PM

[Craig]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 11:38pm

KingKong-

I'm aware of the business decision and motivation. I just think the way they are explaining it in that press release make the decision sound ridiculous.

And Namo - why couldn't they name is Psi-Fi

Can we refer to it as Siffie. Or maybe the Ys are silent and we should pronounce it SSSSFFFF

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 12:58am

I like Sai Fai.... it's Science Fiction with an Asian flair

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 1:26am

i still don't get why the hell they have ECW on that network... it just doesn't fit into ANYTHING on their schedule!

[Weez]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 7:12am

They should just bow to peer-pressure and call themselves Skiffy.

[Plum]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 10:15am

Skiffy is what I call them when I hate them, which is a lot of the time, especially given the fact that I'm a genre fan. I don't really get their desire to have a legally trademarkable name now - was anyone else interfering with their Sci-Fi brand on television? If they wanted to rebrand, they could just have easily come up with an easily trademarkable new slogan or logo.

Oh, well. At least the owner of SyFy Portal made a lot of money off this. I think now I'm going to pronounce the channel's name "seefee" just for spite.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 11:52am

I just suggested "Syphie" because prevention marketeers in San Francisco have already come up with Phil, the syphilis sore.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 11:56am

Ewwwww!

(this thread is hilarious.)

Why on earth does the Sci-Fi channel show wrestling? I didn't know that (but I never watch that channel anyway)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 12:14pm

Your answer is right in the press release: "imagination-based entertainment including fantasy..."

[StockardFan]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 12:16pm

Well there ya go, I guess!

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 6:32pm

Whie are they changing it to SyFy. Wiiye?!


What's the big deal with trademarking? They've been doing just fine without a trademark on the name so far. And the have a clear brand and an "identity."

Are they really worried about a second Sci-Fi channel being launched called the Sci-Fi Channel? Or three or four? Clone channels perhaps?

...coming soon to the Skiffy Channel.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 6:56pm

Forrest Ackerman is supposed in Trufen legend to have coined the woid. If he never got a royalty why shoud anyone else. (skifi is what the fen also say when they want to be sarcastically derogatory) For a while Speculative Piction was popular but Spec Fic sounded like a gynecelogical procedure)

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 7:21pm

i wish sci fi would stop playing the same movies over and over every weekend... i swear to jeebus... every weekend it's the marathon of alligator monster movies, then bugs, then snakes, then sasquatch/yeti... then it repeats all over again! geez!

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 7:42pm

Yeah, I turned it on for a few minutes in between repeats of Lost and it was some awful made-for-TV movie. This guy was ripping his own heart out of his chest. And then Brenda Walsh...er...Shannen Doherty ran towards him with some sort of big club. It was odd to say the least.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/17/09 at 9:55pm

Maybe the "Y" approach will answer "why" they have only four TV movies that they keep showing over and over again.

[Craig]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 12:17am

I've seen this move before - it's MTV. Remember when the M stood for music and they played videos all day? Now you'd be hard pressed to find music on the music television station. The channel formerly known as Sci-Fi doesn't want to be niche anymore apparently. They want to try and get every demographic. Perhaps a wise move - but one has to wonder if the audience they'll gain will a) be as loyal and b) outnumber the ones they alienate (pardon the pun)

[Plum]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 12:25am

It's a moron network run by executives who have openly expressed contempt for sci-fi and its fans. I'm pretty sure they cancelled one of their original genre programs, The Dresden Files, because its decent-enough ratings included too large a proportion of female viewers in their eyes. (Not that The Dresden Files was this great treasure, but "too many women"? Really?) They whitewashed and mutilated Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea stories. And don't get any Farscape fan started on the way that network dicked them around. I'm glad they've hung on to Battlestar Galactica despite low ratings, I really am, but it's one of very few halfway decent moves they've made recently.

The hard core sci-fi/fantasy cult isn't tiny, and it's enough to sustain cable shows because it's a cult. A cult of utterly voracious media consumers who will cling to their favorite programs for decades, watch the spinoffs, buy the action figures, and do your advertising for you using cons and (these days) the Web. Why Skiffy enjoys alienating their potentially slavish customer base so much is beyond me.

Updated On: 3/18/09 at 12:25 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 12:40am

Because it's not profitable ENOUGH.

TVLand used to feature classic television. Now it has original programming targeting the newly 40.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 12:46am

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/zuckered-scifi-channel-and-website-to-be-rebranded-as-syfy/

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 1:34am

ooh TV Land... i really miss the classic programming shows... i mean i get the reason why stations have to rebrand themselves.... but then we lose the reason why we liked the station in the first place... aaargh...

[Plum]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 1:54am

Namo, if they were smart they'd realize that they can keep the hard core genre fans while also attracting relative dilletantes. Comic book movies have been doing it for years now. Even the ludicrous Heroes managed it for a while. You don't have to insult the idea of that icky sci-fi in order to go mainstream, especially not these days.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 2:13am

i don't have G4 anymore... i used to.... but are sci-fi an g4 pretty much similar channels or they each go after the same demographic?