We commented on the apparent silliness of the name change back when it was announced, a few months ago. And all of that logic still applies. But time has reduced the level of outrage to the equivalent of a pebble in the sneaker: kind of annoying, but not catastrophic.
Time will tell if this branding experiment will pay off, or if "Syfy" will, eventually, go the way of Crystal Pepsi or The WB's frog mascot. All I want is more quality science fiction on television. If they'll give me that, they can call themselves the Brenda Network for all I care.
And you, P-Dubbies? Does the name Syfy make you more or less likely to tune in to the Warehouse 13 premiere tonight?
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Ah yes, that new station Siffy. If I were an upstart tv station, I would call my channel Sci-Fi and sell shares in the company the next day on the open market.
why would they change a good, recognizable name to one that makes no sense?
Yeah, I still think the “rebranding” concept was incredibly stupid. I, for one, will not be tuning into that channel. Ever. Again.
SyFy == New Coke.
They changed the name because they couldn’t trademark SciFi and they can SyFy even though it is totally inane and it makes me feel stupid to watch it.
They want to expand the franchise and they couldn’t do that if they couldn’t trademark the brand. So the paid their consultants (overpaid) and came up with something that sounds the same when you say it even though it is spelled like the name of a bad comedian or a wanna be rapper.
But Eureka is back this week (finally), and Warehouse 13 starts tonight (worth at least one night), so I guess I have to put up with it for the summer.
But the real reason for the change is that they don’t show Science Fiction anymore and this gets them away from that. Of course to be honest, they still should rename it yet again to “The Bowflex Giant Monster Channel” but that would be too honest.
Still think it’s a stupid, stupid name. I wondered if they had backtracked on it, but no such luck, I guess. Up until about a week ago there were NO ads on SciFi talking about the change, and even the banner ad at the top of EW’s home page for Warehouse 13 still says SciFi.
I’m not even watching Warehouse 13. I’m still bitter about all the great stuff they’ve cancelled to make room for stuff like wrestling. Stargate Atlantis should NOT have gotten dumped so unceremoniously.
I am pretty upset with the name change. I was proud to call myself sci-fi fan. After few months may be i could over come it but SCI-FI will be always on my mind even if i read SYFY
I find the Syfy name revolting, but from a marketing perspective, it may be an annoyingly savvy move. Tech and science have been creeping into new domains, from the Wii played at senior citizen homes, to your mom and dad Twittering, to the new Star Trek successfully wooing new demographics. What I’m hoping for is, as the new “Syfy” label distances itself from Science Fiction, a more hardcore station will arise with a new renaissance of pure science fiction. If that happens, the SciFi folks may regret having forsaken those who got them as far as they have.
This is absolutley the single dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.
Re-branding the name is how they clear the deck for reality shows. Arts & Entertainment became A&E so programming could get away with being none of the former. Kiss your scripted scifi goodbye, fanfolk
Might as well call it MSNBC! There isn’t much in the way of SciFi on that channel anymore and its own version is lame. Last night they had that pirate movie and some other lame stuff… Sci Fi seems to have left the building….
Might as well call it MSNBC! There isn’t much in the way of SciFi on that channel anymore and its own version is lame. Last night they had that pirate movie and some other lame stuff… Sci Fi seems to have left the building….
Syfy looks like something less than than the paisley design on the housecoat. May even less than a little snot on the sleeve. Good luck selling that.
What an absolutely useless waste of time. Besides, the “SyFy” channel has become the “Cheap, Bad, Horror Channel” and has very little Science Fiction offerings any more other than endless reruns of Twilight Zone. What a waste…but then again, it’s TV.
The name totally suggest that of 95% of rappers out there…BAD. LOL!
I stopped watching the broadcast version of SciFi years ago, I just got worn down by the commercials and the incessant animated logo bugs and advertising crawls at the bottom of the screen. Oh, I still watch their series, but I wait for them on DVD and enjoy them commercial free, logo free, crawl free, and I can view them at my pace and my schedule. Oh sure, I may have to wait six months or more to see these shows, but I find the wait most worth it to be free of the GARBAGE. I’ll give credit where it’s due, some of the shows are great. The broadcast presentation of them however sucks.
About 45 years ago, I was taught that y and w were “sometimes” vowels.
First The Learning Channel becomes TLC, to make room for the utterly inane John and Kate, and now this. Just another symptom of the banal dumbing down of American culture. Science Fiction was (and let’s be at least a bit optimistic, still is) one of the few remaining bastions of thinking people. This name change is a slap in all their faces, and will absolutely cost them what little of that audience they still had. Whether it will buy them an equal or larger replacement audience of idiots, who knows. Good luck to them. I won’t be watching.
The only way this channel is reasonably “watchable” is with a DVR, what with all the low-budget ads they run. I agree with Mike above; it should be renamed “The Bowflex Giant Monster Channel”.
I am so tired of the cheesey monster snake movies they seem to love. If the name change allows them to get rid of the crack heads that are doing the scheduling and actually show science fiction then I am all for it. If the programming continues as is, forget it. I would rather see the reruns of the Waltons than the crap they show OVER AND OVER. What does Wrestling have to do with science fiction?? Whats next, “Cooking with Science Fiction”? If they use my idea I expect to be compensated for it.
Almost more obnoxious than Pizza Hut becoming “The Hut.” *Sigh*(fi)
But I remember how everyone gave Nintendo a hard time when they decided to name their new game console “Wii.”
Now, everyone is used to calling it the “Wii,” and I can’t remember the last time I heard someone complain about it.
Still, a change from “Sci Fi” to “SyFy” seems pointless.
PS: “Y” can be used as a vowel, so contrary to what this story claims, there is no “distinct lack of vowels” in the name “SyFy.” 50 per cent of the new name is made of vowels.
REALLY bad idea! I’d love to meet the marketing idiot that sold other idiots on this “Syfy” name. He/she must be very charismatic to convince people that this laughable brand will help their network. Either that, or no one has any common sense at the executive level at “Syfy” LOL!
The alien programming choice in featuring wrestling on a SciFi content channel was the first indication of this network’s imminent fate: being ultimately sucked dry beyond its own event horizon into the dreaded broadcasting black hole. This renaming ploy is clearly an attempt to further position its programming for being justifiably outside of its previous gravitational content field…which also interestingly opens the way for a die-hard seriously competitive science fiction/fantasy/horror channel to emerge that will honor the core of its mission and audience. The question is: is there REALLY a viable market out there that’s large enough to attract and support a network which can justify investing the financing for producing quality original programming?…and do it with enough class to avoid underselling the intelligence of its audience?
Scifi is completely gouging on the commercials. The only way I can watch the shows anymore is to DVR it or wait for the DVD release.
Since the “Sci-Fi Channel” hasn’t shown actual sci-fi as the majority of its programming in years, I don’t care if they call it the Prince symbol channel. Its name is as irrelevant as it is. Sad, but true. Oh, for a real Science Fiction (and yes, Fantasy and Horror) channel that showed quality tv and films from the genres… ah, but that idea is true sci-fi indeed.
This has been going this direction for a while. It was orginally “The Sci-Fi Channel”. Then it became “Sci-Fi”. Then I got a terse email from one of their PR people telling me that it was “SciFi”, no hyphen. They couldn’t get that trademarked or even get people to consistently refer to it in that way so they went to the terrible “Syfy”. Which, as has been stated, clears the decks for more reality and less science fiction. BBC America runs more science fiction than the-channel-formerly-known-as-SciFi. It’ll only get worse.
I’ve believed for some time now if Science Fiction television was ultimately doomed. After all, the group of people to whom Science Fiction television tries to market to are the same group that tend to use technology to avoid having to watch commercials, or even pay for cable in order to be able to watch the shows they like. They use DVRs, BitTaurent, YouTube and Hulu to watch their shows these days. Heck, remember E-Mule from 10 years ago? Since this is the case, Science Fiction shows get lower ratings, and hence fewer advertisers pay to show commercials during these shows. (This, BTW, explains the proliferation of Boflex commercials.)
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Knowing all this I’m not surprised at this rebranding of a great channel to a silly name that will allow the programmers to put on more reality TV and stupid monster movies. The only good shows left are Eureka, Dr Who and Torchwood, and that’s only because those shows appeal to a wider genre. Good tv scifi is nearly dead, and has been for some time.
Must be changing to a medical channel covering STDs–Syfy (Siffy) may be short for Syphilis.
I liked the WB’s frog!!