Sci Fi Channel rebranding to become SyFy [Archive]

Joran

2009-03-16, 11:22 AM

The Sci Fi Channel is rebranding to SyFy. The reasoning:

“The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network.

“When we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you’d text it,” Mr. Howe said. “It made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip, which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise.”

Source: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/03/sci_fi_channel_aims_to_shed_ge.php

Seriously though, if you want to separate yourself from the word Sci-Fi, do not use something that is pronounced the same way =P Use something like SF. I doubt it'll make much of a difference. If you have good programming, people will come.

Cristo Meyers

2009-03-16, 11:27 AM

“The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network.

“When we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you’d text it,” Mr. Howe said. “It made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip, which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise.”

So the fact that SyFy is exactly how someone would text it was the clincher? What exactly does that do to help separate them from the negative stereotypes again?

Seriously though, if you want to separate yourself from the word Sci-Fi, do not use something that is pronounced the same way =P Use something like SF. I doubt it'll make much of a difference. If you have good programming, people will come.

Too bad we're talking about a network that has historically crushed good programming or otherwise tried to get rid of it as soon as it started to show the slightest hint of popularity: Dresden Files, SG-1...

I wish they'd actually go back to the channel's roots more than anything.

Nerd-o-rama

2009-03-16, 11:33 AM

Sci Fi Sy Fy: where good policy decisions go to die.

Piedmon_Sama

2009-03-16, 12:05 PM

Sy-Fy: "**** the letter C."

Deckmaster

2009-03-16, 12:05 PM

That description of the Sci-Fi channel's current audience sounds a lot like me.

The thing is, they say it like it's a bad thing.

Jayngfet

2009-03-16, 12:22 PM

Way to alienate your audience sci-fi SyFi

Cristo Meyers

2009-03-16, 12:24 PM

Way to alienate your audience sci-fi SyFi

What audience?

chiasaur11

2009-03-16, 12:26 PM

I have never hated the SciFi channel as much as I do now.

SyFy? Seriously?

It makes "the Wii" sound like a bit of genius.

And I refused to say that name for weeks.

Rogue 7

2009-03-16, 12:31 PM

Battlestar Galactica ends on Friday. After that, who cares about SciFi anymore?

snoopy13a

2009-03-16, 12:40 PM

You know, I can't remember the last time I watched that station (I'm not a BSG fan)

However, due to the name change, I'm going to watch regulary. Obviously, their marketing people have convinced me that the inspired name change shows a commitment to to something or another :smallsmile:

Still, I'd think that their demographics would be alright. Engineers and computer science people do make good money.

JMobius

2009-03-16, 12:42 PM

They get as much if an engineer watches the channel as if in art major does. The broader the appeal they can get, the better.

This is still a stupid move.

Pendragonx

2009-03-16, 01:08 PM

in the long history of cable channels making bad decisions.. this is one of them

Athaniar

2009-03-16, 01:16 PM

"I have a great idea! Let's gravely insult our viewers and get a new name that sounds just like our current name, but incredibly stupid!"

"You mean we can do both at the same time? Awesome! Let's do it!"

Ah, you americans... In my country, we have a science fiction channel that appreciates its viewers, and has good shows.

Tensu

2009-03-16, 01:40 PM

SyFy channel: **** our target demographic!

I remember in one of their "original movies", Beowulf had a rocket launcher. that's so pathetic and infuriating, it's funny.

"original" being in quotes because all of their movies are bastardizations and "movies" being in quotes because while you can watch them, any entertainment derived from them will be from how bad they are.

I remember one of my friends saying "why don't they just take all the money they spent on this movie and give it to me. their returns would be just as good."

Muz

2009-03-16, 01:43 PM

I mentioned this to a friend of mine. Her first response: "Maybe they're afraid of the false advertisement suits they were sure to incur?" :smallbiggrin:

BlueWizard

2009-03-16, 01:49 PM

This is the stupid. Why would they want to get away from their target demographic. They are only going to piss people off.

But, they stopped making sci-fi movies anyway. They've been trying to package different monster-horror movies as sci-fi. I haven't seen an honest to goodness sci-fi movie on it {that is original} in a long while.

Sci-Fi movies are like 2001, NOT Star Wars.

Bayar

2009-03-16, 01:49 PM

We are talking about AXN Sci-Fi ? Heck, I wantch it every day. Things like "The Outer Limits" are too entertaining to miss.

So now, spelling stuff wrongly will get you a broader audience ? Yeah, I bet the less intelectually inclined will enjoy it now. /sarcasm

Joran

2009-03-16, 02:00 PM

I mentioned this to a friend of mine. Her first response: "Maybe they're afraid of the false advertisement suits they were sure to incur?" :smallbiggrin:

This would be true, except Cartoon Network has been running live action movies...

SteveMB

2009-03-16, 03:13 PM

The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that...

Maybe 99% of the original programming on your channel is associated with that, yes, but that's your own fault for cranking out crap.

averagejoe

2009-03-16, 03:22 PM

What was that quote from that one SG-1 episode? "Marketing research tells us that shows with 'X' in the title get better responses," or something like that.

Jack Squat

2009-03-16, 03:27 PM

What was that quote from that one SG-1 episode? "Marketing research tells us that shows with 'X' in the title get better responses," or something like that.

I think it was "X-treme", but yeah.

Krrth

2009-03-16, 04:14 PM

*Twitch*

Someone please tell me April came early this year?

thegurullamen

2009-03-16, 04:21 PM

Scifi fans should have been worried when the execs put ECWrestling on at night. That's got to be one of the single biggest swings from health to network decay I've ever heard of. Now we have a name change whose only purpose is to step away from the supposed key demographic? This coming on the heels of BSG's and Atlantis' final seasons? (And somehow, I doubt the Brannon/Brega SG show will make it past the first thirteen eps...) Expect more garbage shows in the wake of this name swap.

Worse, I sense another name change coming soon, something along the lines of the infamous TNN/Spike switch a few years back where they went through three or four name and persona changes before settling on THE MAN'S CHANNEL, BRAH!! I give it a year and a half before we're watching the Super Network or some other crap-name-comic-book-testosterone-frat-gamer schlock the execs want to put in front of us.

Xuincherguixe

2009-03-16, 04:43 PM

... Ow. That's painful.

Like with so many, we have a Canadian rough equivalent channel. "The Space Channel", which is a Science Fiction/Fantasy network.

It recognizes who exactly watches it, and isn't deeply ashamed of that fact. Nor does it take itself very seriously.

The name change is stupid, but the attitude is more stupid.

Yeah, it's a genre with a lot of weird fans that aren't very popular. And it's full of people who will actually get it if you put in something meaningful.

If your offering programming to a certain audience, you should respect it. Be proud of it. After all, they're the ones responsible for your existence.

I can't help but be reminded of that episode of the Boondocks about Black Entertainment Television. (Which to my understanding there is no rough, superior Canadian equivalent with a lower budget.) The premise of the episode was, "We here at BET hate Black People."

It's starting to sound like something like that would work equally well with Sy1337haxx0rS.

Which brings me to another point, maybe they should embrace their audience and have a program about programming! It could really surreal if it was ALSO science fiction.
"Okay remember, the Romulan's tend to not declare their variables at the start of blocks. This is bad programming practice! Because it's hard to maintain, this is why we were able to lower their shields and transport a photon torpedo on their bridge!"
"Um sir? Aren't we breaking a lot of copyright law here?"
"Ensign, throw him out the airlock!"
"Wait, are we Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica now?"
"... You know, I forget."

Turcano

2009-03-16, 04:55 PM

So let me get this straight. The Sci-Fi Channel executives have finally got it into their skulls that their programming is so abysmal that "Sci-Fi Original" has become a byword for "unwatchable ****pile" (much in the same way that "Lifetime Original" has become a byword for "unwatchable, misandrist ****pile"), and their idea of fixing this is to change the name of the station slightly.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

DraPrime

2009-03-16, 05:03 PM

So bad spelling is going to make it more attractive? I guess if you really like rap and hip hop, but otherwise it's just weird. I'm not really pissed off about this, as it's just a stupid name change. With any luck, they'll go back. I remember when KFC once started saying that it's "Kitchen Fresh Chicken." A couple months later, and that was completely gone, and it's Kentucky-fried again.

Dervag

2009-03-16, 05:32 PM

Warning: Link to TVTropes follows! Proceed at your own risk!

This sounds like a blatant case of Xtreme Kool Letterz (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XtremeKoolLetterz).

I think they'll give up on this pretty fast, or that the channel will self-destruct as a result. No idea which.

KillianHawkeye

2009-03-16, 05:49 PM

Please tell me this is somebody's joke. Does anybody have a source for this info? The quote in the OP just doesn't sound like what a TV Exec would actually say.

Myatar_Panwar

2009-03-16, 05:56 PM

It looks like in order to avoid being labeled as the dork station, they came up with the dorkiest name I have ever heard.

Rogue 7

2009-03-16, 06:03 PM

I must retract my previous statement, as they're going to be airing Caprica. Nuts.

Bryn

2009-03-16, 06:04 PM

A quick Google search gives me this (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/a149767/sci-fi-channel-to-become-syfy.html), which says the name change is for trademark purposes.

Additionally, "A new Syfy Ventures unit will push the brand into games, films and children's markets." :smallamused:

zillion ninjas

2009-03-16, 06:16 PM

“It made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip, which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise.”

facepalm.jpg

The obscenity rules on this forum do not permit me to adequately express my opinion on this matter. Use your imaginations, please.

The quote in the OP just doesn't sound like what a TV Exec would actually say.

No, you mean that it doesn't sound like what a person would say. It's exactly the sort of thing that a TV exec would say.

Pwenet

2009-03-16, 06:47 PM

*BANG*

"Did I just shoot myself in the foot. If only I had enough of an IQ to comprehend pain properly." (Sci-FiSyFy [My fingers, THEY BURN typing that!] executives)

Sci-Fi channel has been a rotting corpse without the good grace to become a decent zombie. Personally the only thing I watch on that channel is BSG, and guess what, that ends this week.

Even more motivation to completely drop cable and just buy a HD antenna.

purple gelatinous cube o' Doom

2009-03-16, 06:51 PM

a "rebranding" (cough:name change:cough) won't help them with the fact that they make stunningly awful movies.

Jack Squat

2009-03-16, 07:05 PM

a "rebranding" (cough:name change:cough) won't help them with the fact that they make stunningly awful movies.

I like their movies.

In the same sense that I like the originals of the movies that appear on MST3K.

Quincunx

2009-03-16, 07:09 PM

facepalm.jpg

The obscenity rules on this forum do not permit me to adequately express my opinion on this matter. Use your imaginations, please.

The cast of Avenue Q just held a minute's silence for you, you sick and depraved creature! . . .and /agree.

snoopy13a

2009-03-16, 08:48 PM

This would be true, except Cartoon Network has been running live action movies...

Or MTV not showing music videos anymore?

Maybe the reason few people watch the Sci Fi channel is because there are lots of science fictionesque shows on the networks.

Look there's

Heroes
Fringe
Dollhouse
That terminator show
Medium
Ed

I'm sure there are some I can't think of.

Xuincherguixe

2009-03-16, 10:53 PM

I think I've come up with an appropriate reaction to this.

"SyFy. Y?"

Rutskarn

2009-03-16, 10:58 PM

It really does add joy to one's life to witness, every so often, gross stupidity on such a massive scale.

Just be thankful that the worst thing the world can lose in this equation is a smattering of unlawfully bad made-for-TV-movies and craptastic originals series.

I don't think I've seen anything quite this stupid since Hurl (http://www.somethingawful.com/d/awful-links/hurl-g4-show.php).

Trog

2009-03-17, 12:53 AM

* A troglodyte wearing a tan trench coat, a hat with a card which reads "PRESS" on it and holding a microphone resembling a large metallic lozenge on a stick leans in*

FLASH! Not wanting to be out done by the re-branded "SyFy" channel, FOX today announced that they would be changing their name also by switching the "O" to a "U". Details at 10.

BlueWizard

2009-03-17, 02:22 AM

The article I read by the president, made me think he didn't know the first thing about science-fiction. And besides Battlestar, their programming shows.... and they are ending battlestar.

Fools!!!!

shadow_archmagi

2009-03-17, 05:51 AM

JabberwockySupafly

2009-03-17, 06:31 AM

This would be like WotC deciding to rename D&D to Dunjenz & Dragenz Xtreme. And you'd roll on the Phat Lewtz table, and you'd have to have 2 DMs. One to actually do the story-telling, and the other to constantly tell Chuck Norris jokes or take movie titles and insert the word Murloc somewhere, so the younger people could relate to it.

Seriously, if they wanted to make the name look younger, they have achieved their desired result far beyond their expectations. It looks like it was spelled by a kindergartner. As for them not wanting to appeal to the anti-social video gamers who live in basements? Uhm... Isn't that kind of the majority of people who like Science Fiction?(I'm not mocking Sci-Fi fans, btw, I used to be an anti-social kid living in my parent's basement playing video games all day. Then I met my now-wife, and upgraded to playing video games all day in our TV room.)

I'm not trying to be rude, but you're not going to go to a trendy night club and find someone saying something like "Yeah, I would have never watched a channel call 'Sci-Fi' but SyFy! That really speaks to me as an 18-34 year old social male who lives in his own home and doesn't own a gaming console!" Oh, and I want to know something, if their key demographic is apparently techno-savvy, then why don't they know how to use the "c" and "i" keys on their mobile phones/iphones/blackberries/whatever? Being anything that ends with a "-savvy" does not give you an excuse to ignore proper english. In fact, I think it should enforce that rule even further.

Funny, though, that a channel that made it's name by showing reruns of Star Trek, Dark Shadows and The Twilight Zone would want to distance itself from the image which it helped to perpetuate in the first place.

Kcalehc

2009-03-17, 08:24 AM

So from 16 keypresses on a cell phone for scifi, to 13 keypresses on a cell phone for syfy; saving me almost 19% of the time it takes to text. Awesome change, these guys are so smart, I don't know how I could have lived taking so long to text this to my friends. Now I can tell people how much their movies suck in even less time than before! Yay.

The budget for the consultant team that came up with this, was probably the same as the budget for their last three movies. Combined.

Why not for a re-branding say: "we'll show more re-runs and less original programming - but we'll actually try to do a decent job on the originals. We care about our dedicated fan base, and want to attract more likeminded people to our quality Science-Fiction oriented entertainment."

Ascension

2009-03-17, 09:48 AM

This would be like WotC deciding to rename D&D to Dunjenz & Dragenz Xtreme.

Um... about that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lejendary_Adventure)...

Disclaimer: I know precious little about Lejendary Adventure beyond its name. Unfortunately, its name is why I know precious little about it... I can't take it seriously.

Note on Disclaimer: Nor can I take "SyFy" seriously. Seriously. Farewell, ye home of stupid movies. Let Battle Planet remain the last thing I ever watched on your stinking channel.

Maelstrom

2009-03-17, 11:41 AM

Joran

2009-03-17, 12:00 PM

I have to laugh here....watching so many get up in arms because of a damn cable channels *name*... Might as well continue to reinforce the stereotype which someone posted earlier (from an unknown source) that that was the reason the network was changing the name to distance themselves from...

Pretty hard (OK, impossible) to trademark the name "SciFi" (which in itself is "bad spelling", so that is no real argument)..are they going to be drastically altering the genre of the shows they air? I doubt it (though wish they would change the *quality* of most of their original programming, taking a cue from fx network).

My bad. I thought I linked the source to the quotes in my initial post. Whoops.

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/03/sci_fi_channel_aims_to_shed_ge.php

Mostly for me, it was a "wow, that sounds like an idiotic move and boy would I want the salary of whoever came up with that idea" rather than being upset about the name. The first quote I linked was annoying, but I'm used to it.

Rutskarn

2009-03-17, 05:47 PM

I have, in my career, seen three Sci-Fi...

Oh, sorry. I have seen three SyFy...

Okay you know what? No. Just no.

I have, in my career, seen three Sci-Fi original movies. The first was an adaptation of a Stephen King novel that wasn't so much insufferable as unpleasant.

The second, however, was a movie about Roanoke starring Adrian Paul. If it weren't for him, I never would have seen any of it.

As it is, I watched it with some other people for about an hour. Much of that was spent making fun of the movie. Finally, I couldn't take another damn minute.

The third movie was Highlander: The Source.

I don't know that I want to spend much time going into that. Suffice it to say that Manos: The Hands of Fate was, in fact, not the worst film ever made.

Krrth

2009-03-18, 04:55 PM

For real fun, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syf. They probably should have checked to see if it was a real word first....

Tensu

2009-03-18, 07:33 PM

For real fun, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syf. They probably should have checked to see if it was a real word first....

...I think their fail has just become an epic fail.

"let's all watch the "relating to syphilis" channel!"

thegurullamen

2009-03-18, 07:50 PM

Nothing quite as beautiful as a multi-layered bad corporate decision. (sniff) Ah, the complex interplay of ignorance, arrogance and Internet backlash. The latter gives it a nice, nutty kick.

Oh, how Chicago will laugh.

Yulian

2009-03-18, 07:54 PM

But, they stopped making sci-fi movies anyway. They've been trying to package different monster-horror movies as sci-fi. I haven't seen an honest to goodness sci-fi movie on it {that is original} in a long while.

Once they put on wrestling and didn't even try to justify it I think it was pretty much done.

I can't say I watch it much...they don't even have any series I like anymore. All the good older shows seem to have migrated over to Chiller.

SyFy...baahahahaa!

- Yulian

chiasaur11

2009-03-18, 08:00 PM

...I think their fail has just become an epic fail.

"let's all watch the "relating to syphilis" channel!"

Eh. I stopped watching when they started showing stuff about clamydia.

Lost sight of the original vision.

Tensu

2009-03-18, 10:51 PM

Colbert gave the syphilis channel a tip of his hat...:smallfrown:

although I must admit his reasons where justified. Kurse you, letter C! always stealing S and K's thunder!:smallbiggrin:

Trixie

2009-03-19, 05:45 AM

For real fun, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syf. They probably should have checked to see if it was a real word first....

Yup. When I saw the title I begin to wonder if anyone there actually speaks Polish or Russian.

You know, the translation on this page is a very mild one. I thought about posting a correct one, but the forum would certainly filter that, and besides, it is so vulgar, so... why bother?

Just imagine whatever very vulgar, colloquial versions of these 3 meanings used where you live, and you'll get the idea.

pondshadow

2009-03-19, 02:04 PM

Well, Sci-Fi is just changing it's name to reflect it's programming, something that sort of sounds like science fiction, but in reality it isn't, like Cha$e or Destination truth.

Also, why do they want to get away from a niche? Wouldn't that transform them into a channel that's programming isn't original and no one watches. Sadly, we've seen the same thing happen to G4.

2009-03-19, 02:38 PM

Also, why do they want to get away from a niche? Wouldn't that transform them into a channel that's programming isn't original and no one watchesTwo questions:

1) Why would a non-niche station be either unoriginal or unpopular? The BBC is most certainly not a niche station (generally national stations are charged with appealing to all) yet it produces many original and popular programs

2) How much of the SciFi Channel's previous output was actually original or produced in-house? One reason why I never watched the channel in the first place was because it rarely aired series that I had not seen before

BRC

2009-03-19, 02:47 PM

So, what they are doing is telling their core demographic (read, People who like Science Fiction) "Hey, we don't want to be associated with you", and then change the name in such a way that does nothing to dissasociate them with the genre of Science Fiction and therefore the people who enjoy it.
First of all, the sheer idiocy of trying to dissasociate yourself from your core demographic is mind boggling. Secondly, this is like if I'm hanging out with a friend, a turn to them and say "Hey, You suck, I'm leaving" and then stay exactly where I am.