Apparently, Sci-Fi has decided to change their name and adopt the new moniker “SyFy” – stating that they’d like to get away from the “geeky nerd in the basement of his parent’s house eating Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew while updating their apt repositories and setting up mirrors of their favorite Buffy web site and downloading illegal copies of Firefly, image” – basically every tech fan ever is covered in their reasoning. (That quote is actually from me, I was quoting myself – no one at Sci-Fi said those exact words.) They would like the new moniker to include more than just stereotypical science fiction, expanding out to encompass fantasy, action entertainment, and just about anything else that will turn them a dollar. Apparently serving a niche and serving it beautifully wasn’t working for them in these hard economic times, so they’re having to diversify.
I could have told you Sci-Fi was headed for the beginning of the end when they started airing ECW wrestling on Tuesday nights. What on earth does wrestling have to do with science fiction? They saw the influx of viewers from such a different niche, and thought – hey, why can’t we capitalize on this and start bringing in better ratings? What’s the deal, Sci-Fi? You are betraying a viewership that had a strong sense of loyalty and pride towards the Sci-Fi brand.
Cable and Satellite companies, get ready – you’re about to get a few calls from customers wondering where their Sci-Fi channel went, and new account holders requesting “that Siffy channel – my son’s gotta have his Battlestar Gallaga.”
EDIT 2:14PM: Penny Arcade has a great comic up today about the name change.
Thousands of us have complained on their website a few days ago when they posted this to Sci-Fi Wire but I doubt they’ll listen. Instead we’ll have the syphillis channel and they’ll alienate their actual core audience. I haven’t seen a single positive comment about the change and the sad thing is, one of the founders of the channel did make a comment like that in this article: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/03/sci_fi_channel_aims_to_shed_ge.php
I’ve also read elsewhere that they think the new version is “hip and cool” because it is how someone would text Sci-Fi channel to someone else. LOL. Everyone I know would just text SF b/c its shorter..
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It’s true. But it looks like they won’t be txting much of anything because once they run out of BSG episodes I doubt people will watch it for much else besides old movies.