Sci-Fi channel to re-brand itself "SyFy"

[docm]

IMO a lame attempt to deny their roots and sound 'cool'. It's also another sign that NBC's management is out of its freaking mind (their primetime lineup, CNBC and MSNBC being other examples)

Link....

Sci Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name

‘Syfy’ Will Announce Name Change, Other Plans at Upfront

By Jon Lafayette

In some universe, the name “Syfy” is less geeky than the name “Sci Fi.” Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, is betting it’s this one.

To that end, the 16-year-old network—owned by NBC Universal—plans to announce that Syfy is its new name March 16 at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.

“What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds,” Mr. Howe said. “We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”

Sci Fi is coming off the best year in its history. In primetime it ranked 13th in total viewers among ad-supported cable networks in 2008. It’s a top-10 network in both adults 18 to 49 (up 4%) and adults 25 to 54 (up 6%).

During its fourth-quarter earnings call, parent General Electric said Sci Fi racked up a double-digit increase in operating earnings despite the beginnings of the recession.

Nevertheless, there was always a sneaking suspicion that the name was holding the network back.

“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.

Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie.

“We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”

Mr. Howe said going to Syfy will make a difference.

“It gives us a unique word and it gives us the opportunities to imbue it with the values and the perception that we want it to have,” he said.
>
>

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

I read it was mostly due to the fact they couldn't TM SciFi whereas they can SyFy. Yuck. Also mentioned that they wanted to broaden their audience and offerings with "stuff" that isn't SF in nature. So we'll get more "GhostChasers" and Paranormal Crappola and the like. Double yuck. With BSG coming to an end, someone remind me why I should tune in ?

 

[crazyeddie]

IMO a lame attempt to deny their roots and sound 'cool'. It's also another sign that NBC's management is out of its freaking mind (their primetime lineup, CNBC and MSNBC being other examples)

Link....

Sci Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name

‘Syfy’ Will Announce Name Change, Other Plans at Upfront

By Jon Lafayette

In some universe, the name “Syfy” is less geeky than the name “Sci Fi.” Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, is betting it’s this one.

To that end, the 16-year-old network—owned by NBC Universal—plans to announce that Syfy is its new name March 16 at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.

“What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds,” Mr. Howe said. “We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”

Sci Fi is coming off the best year in its history. In primetime it ranked 13th in total viewers among ad-supported cable networks in 2008. It’s a top-10 network in both adults 18 to 49 (up 4%) and adults 25 to 54 (up 6%).

During its fourth-quarter earnings call, parent General Electric said Sci Fi racked up a double-digit increase in operating earnings despite the beginnings of the recession.

Nevertheless, there was always a sneaking suspicion that the name was holding the network back.

“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.

Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie.

“We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”

Mr. Howe said going to Syfy will make a difference.

“It gives us a unique word and it gives us the opportunities to imbue it with the values and the perception that we want it to have,” he said.
>
>

Oh, great......let's just call it the "Siffy Channel", since that's what I imagine when I see "Syfy".....brilliant. :? :lol:

 

[crazyeddie]

I read it was mostly due to the fact they couldn't TM SciFi whereas they can SyFy. Yuck. Also mentioned that they wanted to broaden their audience and offerings with "stuff" that isn't SF in nature. So we'll get more "GhostChasers" and Paranormal Crappola and the like. Double yuck. With BSG coming to an end, someone remind me why I should tune in ?

This, perhaps?

Stargate Universe (occasionally abbreviated as SGU)[1][2] is an upcoming science fiction television series, part of the Stargate franchise. The series was greenlit on August 22, 2008 and is scheduled to debut as a two- or three-hour movie and then begin regular weekly airings on the Sci Fi Channel in October 2009.[3] Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper and Carl Binder serve as executive producers and writers. Stargate Universe started filming on February 18, 2009.
Being firmly entrenched in pre-established Stargate mythology, Stargate Universe follows the adventures of a team of explorers from present-day Earth after they find the Ancient spaceship Destiny. They must fend for themselves aboard the ship in the far reaches of the universe as they are unable to return to Earth. The announced main cast is Robert Carlyle as Dr. Nicholas Rush, Justin Louis as Colonel Everett Young, David Blue as Eli Wallace, Brian J. Smith as Lieutenant Matthew Scott, Jamil Walker Smith as Master Sergeant Ronald Greer, Alaina Huffman as Master Sergeant Tamara Johansen, and Elyse Levesque as Chloe Armstrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Universe

 

[docm]

Star Trek - Voyager TNG? :roll:

Bad thing about SyFy is that IIRC in Polish it's a plural form of crap, junk, mess or syphilis. AFAIK it's similar in other Slavic languages (someone confirm?).

 

[starsinmyeyes44]

“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.




Well...this is one female that loves SCIence FIction and who used to love watching the SCI FI channel back in the "old days." I find fewer and fewer reasons to watch it anymore....and now, with a silly name change, I am further distanced from it. So, their reason for "silly-fying" their name totally missed the mark with me.

 

[docm]

Remember the continuing 'future news' segments every half hour?

Those were a total hoot!!

So was watching Harlan Ellison pontificate every week :roll:

 

[mattblack]

Somebody, somewhere is pulling my leg...

It's not even April 1st yet.........

 

[CalliArcale]

Remember the continuing 'future news' segments every half hour?

Those were a total hoot!!

So was watching Harlan Ellison pontificate every week :roll:

*imagines what Ellison likely thinks of the name*

I remember when Sci-Fi did a special run of "The Prisoner", with each episode introduced and commentated by Harlan Ellison. During the station identification bumpers, he described it as "the station whose name will never cross my lips." This was a reference to his long (and often extensively) stated distaste for the word "sci-fi". He finds "science fiction" to be only marginally more acceptable, and prefers the term "imaginative fiction". I imagine that "SyFy" will make him vomit.

Sci-Fi had referenced this long-standing issue among hardcore SF fans (many of whom prefer "SF" to "sci-fi") by emphasizing the "if" in the middle of their name: sci-fi. Now that will no longer be possible.

Hmmm -- is this maybe an early April Fool's prank? It seems too plausible, given the deplorable state of programming on Sci-Fi these days. They haven't even bothered to get the latest Doctor Who, or the latest Sarah Jane Adventures (though the latter admittedly doesn't fit well with their generally adult-oriented programming and advertising -- sort of like running "Spongebob Squarepants" on Comedy Central).

 

[robotical]

Hmm, I've personally thought that they should change their name to the "Crappy Monster Movie Channel". 'Syfy', aka 'Siffy', is a terrible name.

 

[junkheap]

I think it's time that someone started up a competing channel called "The Science Fiction Network (SFN)", that should wake them up a little.

 

[bdewoody]

I too, rarely watch this channel any more. I still can't figure out the link to wrestling. Now that I can rent thru NetFlix all the episodes of B5 and the other good Sci Fi series I am finding little use for this channel. I started about a month ago renting Bab 5 and I am up to the middle of season 3. I still say that Bab 5 is the all time best series out there by far.

But now that it is March 21st and I still see the SciFi logo maybe the management has reconsidered their idea about a new name.

 

[dragon04]

OH, man. Say it ain't so. You know, I just want to go to NBC's HQ and start smacking the Bejesus out of people.

SyFy? Spare me. It was bad enough when the put that god damn rasslin' on there and now this. I think NBC could screw up a one car funeral.

 

[robotical]

As it turns out 'syfy' is the Polish plural of 'crap'. It's also short for 'syfilis' (syphilis). I guess if they continue in the direction they're going, it's fitting...

http://ellestra.livejournal.com/99679.html

 

[a_lost_packet_]

IMO a lame attempt to deny their roots and sound 'cool'. It's also another sign that NBC's management is out of its freaking mind (their primetime lineup, CNBC and MSNBC being other examples)

Link....

Sci Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name

‘Syfy’ Will Announce Name Change, Other Plans at Upfront

By Jon Lafayette

In some universe, the name “Syfy” is less geeky than the name “Sci Fi.” Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, is betting it’s this one.

To that end, the 16-year-old network—owned by NBC Universal—plans to announce that Syfy is its new name March 16 at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.

“What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds,” Mr. Howe said. “We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”....

Wait, the Sci Fi Channel does something else stupid? What?

IMO, they're all brain dead. True, they've had a few successful series over there. Some were actually worth a portion of the acclaim and hype they generated. But, they've had bucketloads of complete crapola they've been spewing out for years. I say keep the people who are finding the "good" ideas to produce and fire everyone else.

They should also flush anything with a Stargate logo on it straight down the tubes. Stargate was "OK" for a little while. But, it rapidly went from "Hey, I guess this is sort of ok.." to "I can feel my brain cells dying..." Stargate is the Sci Fi channel's whore and they're going to continue to pimp it as long as they can get a few quarters from the last glass-eyed, drooling fans just before they're hooked up to life-support. But, there's only so many times they can roll it over before even the hardest of the hardcore fans can't watch it anymore for fear of contracting permanent cases of T.V.T.Ds that not even a Clorox bath and a shot of penicillin will cure.

In fact, I think the Sci Fi channel changing its name to SyFy is a good move. That way, any future stains they leave on the genre will go largely unrecognized.

 

[docm]

Tell us how you really feel ALP

 

[ZenGalacticore]

IMO a lame attempt to deny their roots and sound 'cool'. It's also another sign that NBC's management is out of its freaking mind (their primetime lineup, CNBC and MSNBC being other examples)

Link....

Sci Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name

‘Syfy’ Will Announce Name Change, Other Plans at Upfront

By Jon Lafayette

In some universe, the name “Syfy” is less geeky than the name “Sci Fi.” Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, is betting it’s this one.

To that end, the 16-year-old network—owned by NBC Universal—plans to announce that Syfy is its new name March 16 at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.

“What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds,” Mr. Howe said. “We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”

Sci Fi is coming off the best year in its history. In primetime it ranked 13th in total viewers among ad-supported cable networks in 2008. It’s a top-10 network in both adults 18 to 49 (up 4%) and adults 25 to 54 (up 6%).

During its fourth-quarter earnings call, parent General Electric said Sci Fi racked up a double-digit increase in operating earnings despite the beginnings of the recession.

Nevertheless, there was always a sneaking suspicion that the name was holding the network back.

“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.

Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie.

“We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”

Mr. Howe said going to Syfy will make a difference.

“It gives us a unique word and it gives us the opportunities to imbue it with the values and the perception that we want it to have,” he said.
>
>

Hmm... NBC. Isn't NBC the same group of corporate idiots that cancelled the real 'Star Trek' in its 3rd season back in 1969?
Dave Howe thinks 'Sci-fi' is associated with dysfunctional, socially alienated 'geeks' in their basements? Sounds like Mr. Howe is the real geek here. "Human friendly brand"? What in the name of Issac Asimov does that mean? Is 'human friendly brand' just a euphemism for 'lowest common denominator' of hopelessly shallow and stupid mass audience? I think so. Typical of the tv business.
It really makes no sense that they tried to 'distance the network' from science fiction. What is the point of specialized media (for example: tennis channel; fishing channel; history channel; golf channel, etc) if a specialized network is going to 'distance' itself from its theme or genre? It's tantamount to the Golf Channel saying: "We're gonna broaden our base and not just appeal to golfers(who are, by the way, insecure yuppie snobs who would rather travel to Italy to play golf rather than see ancient Roman ruins or Rennaisance art and brag when they get back home that they played 18 rounds in Venice) so that we can do stories on skiing, bowling, and skydiving... oh yeah, and maybe some cooking shows too.
What's in a name anyway? 'Syfy' is "going to make a difference"? Really? How so? Maybe I'm getting along in my EARLY middle-age, but I honestly don't get it.
Mr. Brooks is a 'TV historian'? How hard was it to write his Master's thesis, I wonder? Well I've got news for this particular idiot: The people who didn't think of 'Star Wars' as science fiction were RIGHT! 'Star Wars' is Science-FANTASY! Not Science-Fiction. There is a huge difference. (There was very little science in 'Star Wars'.)
From its inception, the Sci-Fi channel has done science-fiction and fantasy, and horror. They should stick to that, IMO.

Science-Fantasy makes the impossible possible; Science fiction makes the improbable plausible.

The almighty dollar ultimately saps creative vibrance and originality, at least in modern entertainment media. It is a Grand Paradox.

 

[CalliArcale]

I remember when Sci-Fi Channel was running (and funding production of) Mystery Science Theater 3000, after Comedy Central screwed up and canceled it. It seemed remarkably appropriate, in that MST3K featured the sort of movies that Sci-Fi Channel produced.

Sadly, their programming has actually *declined* since those days, and now many of their movies I wouldn't even want to watch in MST format.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Yeah, IMHO, Sci-fi channel's 'original programming' is really in the dumps. I know there are many fans of the new 'Battlestar Galactica' here at SDC, But I personally think the show is abyssmal. Why? Because they show the women acting 'macho' in some delusional(probably female writer's) vision of what it means to be manly: cussing, spitting, fighting, arm-wrestling, acting with bravado, etc. A gross parody of masculinity. It makes me sick. Real masculinity is self-control, restraint, kindness in the face of rudeness and agression, using force or counter-force only when necessary, and mental and physical discipline.

 

[bearack]

“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.




Well...this is one female that loves SCIence FIction and who used to love watching the SCI FI channel back in the "old days." I find fewer and fewer reasons to watch it anymore....and now, with a silly name change, I am further distanced from it. So, their reason for "silly-fying" their name totally missed the mark with me.

I have to agree. With the over abundance of "B" (that's being generious) movies they now air on the Silly Fi channel, it's hard to even go there to see if anything good is on. They are going to be airing SG universe which I'll check out as well as Caprica since I was a dedicated BSG fan, but that is about it!

 

[MeteorWayne]

As long as they keep running the Twilight Zone, they'll have me as a part time viewer anyway. They could call it the "Wayne's a jerk" channel and I'd still watch for that.

With a dozen or so good channels (out of a gross or more) on my cable, I pick and choose pretty carefully anyway.

 

[LogicianSolutions]

First off imo Twilight sucks. I don't mean a little. It's 50 years out of date, in black and white, sad plots and worse effects. Oh for it's day with the common mind set it was "imagination opening" but in today's workd? It sucks. Just like ST and SW went from fair for the day to junk of the day to worthless of the day, to useless now. Wonder why sci fi/syfy sucks? Because they keep trying to do shows with fighting in them with liberal mind sets. Everyone senses it's ofand it fails all the time.
A few examples
1 Starwars was made by lucus. If you watch the first few you can see the "nerd mentality" where the brainy boy finally gets to be the hero. Now the few times GL got beat up in school did give him a sense of fighting but as he became more and more hollywood liberal it lost more and more "reality" making wookies revolt into teddy bears, making the "good republic jedi" only kill droids, making the movie which was ment for a more adult audiance dumb down to 6yo liberal violance safty and putting political statements in it like "smoking is bad" err um death sticks I mean. lol and it goes on and on being lame. A.S. turning evil by killing all the kids inorder to save his love? Please he wasn't raving mad which is the only state of mind one could be in that'd make him think she'd have him after doing such a thing. It goes on and on n on the movies are worthless after the first two were originally made. If L.O. hadn't worn the bikini the second movie had tanked.
2 S.T. lol First off "prefect socialism" is the borg not the federation. lol It just gets more "stupid" with making friends with gods one week and then being nearly destroyed by insects the next weeks etc etc. Picard can know when comming into two identicle situations with two potential enemies, which one he needs to raise shields and fire on and which one he must keep his shields down to and be submissive to. Not to mention a great society surrouned by warring nations makes "science ships" not war ships but arm the "science ships" with the most powerful weapons it can find. lol it's all just plain stupid.
3 BSG what a waste. It was a fricken soap op. which had to make PC comments and the ones people may go "huh" to they toss on to the net shows. i.e. The guy with the limp who in the begining (mind you he was a adult man in a enlighten society) first wants to date a girl who's sort of interested in him. A couple years later he comes out as homosexual. It didn't show any progression or thinking or anything just boom now he's gay. wtf? Of corse the biggest false hood of that stupid show was the idea that if a civilization went from 10's of billions to 50,000 people and only survives by the last old warship. Then that commander believes a school teacher should be the leader in this most deserate time of war. lol it was all sooo dumb.

I can go on and on how the leftist writers just don't get it. Sci-fi s owned by G.E. The head of G.E is a liberal who's donated millions to our president and stands to make billions on our presidents new enviormental policies. G.E, owns NBC and NBC is proping up the President. Don't get me wrong McCain would have spent just as much and been just as corrupt. However the point is SciFi is driven by liberals there for their sci fi sucks. Since most Hollywood is liberal most SciFi sucks even when not on the sci fi station. Add to this that the people now running the sci fi chanel have no interest in modern sci fi and you can understand how ghost hunters and wrestleing programs and other non sci fi shows get on there.

Well any way you stack it I'm not invested in the Sci Fi chan because the sci fi chan hasn't been invested in sci fi.

btw off note. Before anyone claims Fox is conservitive, let me set you streight. It isn't. It merely saw that there was a huge market out there (non liberals) and has decided to give these people some choices which aren't only liberal. They lean towards conservitive programs on their news shows and radio shows only because there's a good deal of untapped money there.

ttyl

 

[bdewoody]

I was hoping that either this was a horrible joke or that someone in charge at the Sci-Fi channel would come to his senses and kill this change. But alas, I saw the ad yesterday heralding this event.

 

[VulcanNewsNetwork]

Lame. Lame. Lame. Lame. I am so sick of laypeople trying to hip-up subcults. Subcult fashion went preschool with the creation of Hot Topic, and now we have some dockers-wearing tool trying to attach sci-fi culture to mainstream meatheads. FIGHT THE POWER~! Eventually, there WILL be an uprising, you know. There HAS to be. Artists keep turning poor neighborhoods into hip districts, only to be pushed out by socialites. Likewise, maybe someone will just create a new channel for us to move to. One called 'Sci-fi" not SyFy. HAHA

 

[yevaud]

Agreed wholeheartedly. This is a dipwad mistake on their part. The term "Sci Fi" already partially debases the genre; renaming it "Sy Fy" is on the same order of naming a convenience store "Kwik-E-Mart." It's mindless and foolish.

Gee, I don;t have strong opinions about this, do I?

Btw, welcome to SDC!