SCI FI Channel Has A New Name - Now, It's Syfy

[FilmCritic3K]

It's about time that other shoe dropped.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/media/16adcol.html

Here's the logo for Syfy - http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x18/jasoncinema/11SyfyLogo.jpg

March 16, 2009
Advertising
Sci Fi Channel Has a New Name: Now, It’s Syfy
By STUART ELLIOTT

FOR years, television viewers, journalists who write about TV and services that compile listings have wondered how to refer to a certain cable network: Sci Fi Channel? Sci-Fi Channel? SciFi Channel? SCI FI Channel?

Soon, to paraphrase Rod Serling — whose vintage series, “The Twilight Zone,” is a mainstay of the Sci Fi Channel — executives will submit for public approval another name, not only of sight and sound but of mind, meant to signal a channel whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead — your next stop, Syfy.

Plans call for Sci Fi and its companion Web site (scifi.com) to morph into the oddly spelled Syfy — pronounced the same as “Sci Fi” — on July 7. The new name will be accompanied by the slogan “Imagine Greater,” which replaces a logo featuring a stylized version of Saturn.

A channel called Syfy will, presumably, not be confused with SyFi Global, an information technology company; S.Y.F.I., the Summer Youth Forestry Institute; or Syfo seltzer, sold by Universal Beverages.

The tweaking of the Sci Fi name, introduced in 1992, is part of a rebranding campaign that seeks to distinguish the channel and its programming from cable competitors — 75 of which are also measured by the Nielsen ratings service.

The Syfy name is to be introduced on Monday to advertisers and agencies by executives of Sci Fi, part of the NBC Universal Cable Entertainment division of NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric.

 

[dhett]

Syfy, eh? Apparently, the two guys who sold the emperor his new clothes have now gone into the image consulting business. ("Only those who are fit for their positions will be able to see the brilliance of this new name.")

So, now that they're no longer encumbered by Science or Fiction, I wonder how long until they're wall-to-wall reality TV series?

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Oh, a cute, "street-smart" misspelling of an acronym. Just another
example of the dumbing down of America. What will their logo be--
a space alien wearing a baseball cap backwards (or sideways)? :

 

[FilmCritic3K]

What I like to call "Bonnie Hammer syndrome" has been pervasive at that channel ever since she failed upward, from SCI FI President to President of NBC Universal Cable.

They see no profit motive in the genre so they're "branching out". But why retain the name with different spelling? That's just bizarre.

In any case, it's all good, IMHO. I can count on one hand the number of times I've watched that channel in the past few years. What it was
once to the genre has been dead and buried for more than a decade now. So now their intent is laid bare - once their new branding campaign and the relaunch happen - for all to see, and they can continue to program pablum with a shiny "new" moniker.

 

[ricksegers]

Jeff Dunham's puppet Peanut has a quote that seems fitting..

"Polish up a t*rd, it's still a t*rd."

 

[DToTheJ]

This channel is fynished.

 

[JayR]

SCI FI - Now, It's Syfy

Speaking of SyFy...

From The SyFy Portal:

We just had to evacuate SyFy Portal when it destabilized due to some... tachyon... quantum... spacial... something or other.

The site owner must have been made an offer he couldn't refuse...

8)

 

[Nate Wesley]

I look at that logo and can't help but read 'siffy'.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. TruTV, you're now off the hook for the most confusing channel/network name.

So now their intent is laid bare - once their new branding campaign and the relaunch happen - for all to see, and they can continue to program pablum with a shiny "new" moniker.

They'd have saved a lot of time and cash by doing what cablers did in the '90s--just make this 'USA 2' and be done with it.

 

[Otto Maddock]

In any case, it's all good, IMHO. I can count on one hand the number of times I've watched that channel in the past few years. What it was
once to the genre has been dead and buried for more than a decade now.

Exactly. They may as well dissociate themselves from the science fiction label once and for all. It seems every time I channel surf, they're showing a movie about a bunch of young people being terrorized by some deformed freak. It's become a haven for horror more than anything. Unless they're running the true sci fi classics in the wee hours of the morning, the best years were when they aired shows like The Outer Limits (both old and new) and Farscape.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

This channel is fynished.

ROFL!

I hope this doesn't mean our tower site (and legal ID) guru
has to change his name to "Fibush." We'd wind up calling him
Liar, Liar! (Castaways, 1965.) Or would that be Lyar, Lyar? ;D

And will that radio station in Sandy Eggo--KYXY (and no, I
won't spell it their cutesy way)--sue Syfy for infringement?

 

[jal41]

First, Headline News becomes HLN. Then this. What's next? The Weather Channel becomes "TWC" or "WX"?

About the reason they chose this name...they chose it so they could trademark the name as well as the symbol. The term Sci-Fi cannot be trademarked due to it's common usage.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

About the reason they chose this name...they chose it so they could trademark the name as well as the symbol. The term Sci-Fi cannot be trademarked due to it's common usage.

It's still a silly name. I'll stick with Canada's idea, thank-you very much!
They simply call their Sci-Fi channel "Space".

http://www.spacecast.com/

 

[mescutia]

And then there's what "syfy" means... in Polish. Oops!

They'd have saved a lot of time and cash by doing what cablers did in the '90s--just make this 'USA 2' and be done with it.

Or just shut down completely and move their scripted series (Eureka, Sanctuary, the Stargate series, etc.) to USA.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Or some other kind of transition ala TNN

 

[oldiesfan6479]

And then there's what "syfy" means... in Polish. Oops!

Any truth to the rumor that Syfy's theme song will be Clap For The Wolfman?

Kind of like years ago when AM 1020 in El Lay had the call letters KFVD.
It was derisively referred to as "the only station with a social disease."

Well, they could change it to "Fun Cooker." (Oops again! ;D)

 

[DToTheJ]

Kind of like years ago when AM 1020 in El Lay had the call letters KFVD.
It was derisively referred to as "the only station with a social disease."

Then there's the whole rigamarole regarding why KKHJ in Los Angeles - a Spanish station - was granted the right to revert to the rare three-letter callsign of KHJ - because saying the letter K two times in a row meant something bad in Spanish...

 

[KyDXIn]

And then there's what "syfy" means... in Polish. Oops!

They'd have saved a lot of time and cash by doing what cablers did in the '90s--just make this 'USA 2' and be done with it.

Or just shut down completely and move their scripted series (Eureka, Sanctuary, the Stargate series, etc.) to USA.

Wickedly perfect. They probably don't have a clue. I've never understood why a channel dealing with weird characters, weird storylines, and weird costumes, would have wrestling. What connection does WWE have to aliens? Ohhh, I get it now...

 

[Mr11WXIA]

At this point I don't care what name they want to use as long as they go back to airing an hour of Dark Shadows again on weekdays.

 

[FilmCritic3K]

At this point I don't care what name they want to use as long as they go back to airing an hour of Dark Shadows again on weekdays.

With David Howe at the helm and the upward failure that is Bonnie Hammer above him, the days of that channel being worth a damn are long gone and have been for a decade now.