Sci Fi Channel rebranding to become SyFy

[Joran]

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/s...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]

“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]

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

[Piedmon_Sama]

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

[Deckmaster]

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]

Way to alienate your audience sci-fi SyFi

[Cristo Meyers]

Way to alienate your audience sci-fi SyFi

What audience?

[chiasaur11]

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]

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

[snoopy13a]

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

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

[JMobius]

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]

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

[Athaniar]

"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]

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]

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?"

[BlueWizard]

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]

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]

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?"

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

[SteveMB]

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]

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]

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]

*Twitch*


Someone please tell me April came early this year?

[thegurullamen]

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]

... 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]

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]

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]

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

This sounds like a blatant case of Xtreme Kool Letterz.

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

[KillianHawkeye]

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]

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]

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