New Name For Sci Fi Channel

[Carpe Occasio]

Even though science fiction has a broad appeal these days it still doesn't make for big TV ratings. Yes, sci-fi movies can equal big box office, but TV is a different animal (especially in the U.S.) That's why Sci-Fi/SyFy broadcasts wrestling. They need to boost the ratings.

No, Sci-Fi broadcasts wrestling because NBC Universal signed a contract with WWE to take a number of hours of programming per week and a number of Saturday Night's Main Event specials. They were an hour under on the weekly programming and, with USA reluctant to be known as the "wrestling network" (since they carry the other three hours), NBC decided that ECW should air on Sci-Fi instead.

It is nonsensical to blame ECW for whatever problems Sci-Fi has. It has one hour a week.

Wasn't blaming anything on anything. But if Sci-Fi had great ratings they wouldn't put on wrestling, they would put it up on USA. I stand by science fiction not being a big ratings draw on TV in the U.S.

 

[Hermiod]

^I don't disagree that Sci-Fi isn't a big ratings draw - for some reason the fact that Sci-Fi dominates the box office every year doesn't seem to translate to TV ratings.

 

[JoeZhang]

If you Google SyFy you get this as the number one hit -

http://www.airlockalpha.com/

That website used to be called SyFy Portal but they changed their name because of the long standing rumor that Sci-Fi would change to SyFy.

I don't understand why Mike changed the name of the site, if anything he would have gotten even more traffic from this change.

He sold it to them...

 

[Alpha_Geek]

They were probably wondering how they could possibly dumb down the channel further.

Don't think of it as dumbing down. Think of it as "putting the product on a level that we, the network execs, can understand."

Frakkin' morons. Sometimes you just gotta base a business model on steady state instead of growth.

 

[TK421]

The Syphilis channel.

Great.

 

[Tom]

Really..perhaps we need to start our own Sci-Fi channel...

That is already being attempted...You would be surprised how many industy elites (not just regular fans) out what a more purer scifi/fanatasy channel then what SYFY is currently offering.

 

[Carpe Occasio]

^I don't disagree that Sci-Fi isn't a big ratings draw - for some reason the fact that Sci-Fi dominates the box office every year doesn't seem to translate to TV ratings.

Agreed.

If you Google SyFy you get this as the number one hit -

http://www.airlockalpha.com/

That website used to be called SyFy Portal but they changed their name because of the long standing rumor that Sci-Fi would change to SyFy.

I don't understand why Mike changed the name of the site, if anything he would have gotten even more traffic from this change.

He sold it to them...

Cha-Ching!

 

[Tom]

If you Google SyFy you get this as the number one hit -

http://www.airlockalpha.com/

That website used to be called SyFy Portal but they changed their name because of the long standing rumor that Sci-Fi would change to SyFy.

I don't understand why Mike changed the name of the site, if anything he would have gotten even more traffic from this change.

He sold it to them...

Did not now that, been a few months since I emailed Mike. I wonder if they thought it would be new compitition to them. if you go to syfyportal.com right now it links to airlockalpha.com so he still has control of it. I can tell you that skiffy have already locked down these domain names:

syfy.com
syfychannel.com
syfynetwork.com

I do wonder though if skiffy can now copyright SYFY, whereas scifi was to general a term to copyright. That, in itself, may be a another big reason for this change.

 

[JoeZhang]

I do wonder though if skiffy can now copyright SYFY, whereas scifi was to general a term to copyright. That, in itself, may be a another big reason for this change.

It's explictly mentioned in a couple of the media reports on this.

 

[Mistral]

Can't they just call themselves the "Scifi and other crap that has nothing to do with it channel" and be done with it?

 

[EnsignRicky]

I don't care if they name it Sifo-Dyas. As far as I'm concerned, after BSG goes off, they can name it after whatever sound it is that an unobserved tree makes in the woods.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I do wonder though if skiffy can now copyright SYFY

No.

They can trademark it, though.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Well from a marketing perspective it makes sense because "SciFi" means something outside of the channel, there are scifi movies, scifi tv shows, scifi books, etc all stuff that has nothing to do with the channel. SyFy as stupid as it looks typed out, you see it and instantly realize we're talking about their Shitty Channel.

 

[Mistral]

Well from a marketing perspective it makes sense because "SciFi" means something outside of the channel, there are scifi movies, scifi tv shows, scifi books, etc all stuff that has nothing to do with the channel. SyFy as stupid as it looks typed out, you see it and instantly realize we're talking about their Shitty Channel.

While wrestling certainly resembles fantasy, in that it has no basis in reality, it also has no place on any SY-Fy or scifi channel. Hence my earlier suggestion.

 

[cb31]

YES! Bring on the Law and Order reruns!

 

[Praetor]

I think that says it all. Except:

Kill it with fire. And then nuke it from orbit just to be sure.

QFT.

SyFy - Now you have no need for a "nerd" excuse to watch our shit reality shows.

Exactly. So by relabeling the same shit, they'll be appealing to just who now? A few million suckers who watch once and then turn away because (wait for it) it's the same old shit?

 

[Gryffindorian]

God, what a retarded name.

Agreed. I think "Cy Fye" would make a better name.

 

[Carpe Occasio]

They should call it the "if" channel. They've had commercials where they take the "i" from sci and the "f" from fi to come up with "if." So they should have just gone with the IF Channel. The tag line could be something like "IF ONLY..."

 

[Praetor]

They should call it the "if" channel. They've had commercials where they take the "i" from sci and the "f" from fi to come up with "if." So they should have just gone with the IF Channel. The tag line could be something like "IF ONLY..."

That's a much better idea for what they seem to be trying to go for, and still evocative of their old name.

Still, from what their goals are it seems like someone will end up starting a 'real' science fiction channel, SciFi will wane into little-viewed dreck, and it won't matter.

 

[cylkoth]

Aww, now we can't call it Skiffy anymore.

We'll always have Paris, and the network will always be Skiffy...

Needs more tits.

..And explosions.

You could say See-Fee. That's wrong and almost inappropriate!

It read as CEE FI to me when I first saw it.

From the Sci-Fi website:

"By changing the name to Syfy, which remains phonetically identical, the new brand broadens perceptions and embraces a wider range of current and future imagination-based entertainment beyond just the traditional sci-fi genre, including fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure."

Looks like it won't really be a sci-fi channel any more.

It hasn't been one in a long while...

I don't understand why Mike changed the name of the site, if anything he would have gotten even more traffic from this change.

He sold it to them...

Did not now that, been a few months since I emailed Mike. I wonder if they thought it would be new compitition to them. if you go to syfyportal.com right now it links to airlockalpha.com so he still has control of it. I can tell you that skiffy have already locked down these domain names:

syfy.com
syfychannel.com
syfynetwork.com

I do wonder though if skiffy can now copyright SYFY, whereas scifi was to general a term to copyright. That, in itself, may be a another big reason for this change.

This has been posted at the Airlock Alpha site..

NBCU says it had an internal marketing team develop the name. However, readers of this site most likely are aware that the new name has a direct similarity to its former brand, SyFy Portal. Quantum Global Media Inc., rebranded this site last month to Airlock Alpha, leaving behind the "Syfy" brand, and selling it to an undisclosed entity.

http://www.airlockalpha.com/news426164.html
So it seems NBC was the undisclosed entity.