Are you annoyed because its "Syfy" or just name change in general?

[V]

As "science fiction fans" (thus this belongs in this forum), I wanted to know:

a lot of media (Airlock Alpha, Colbert, etc.) has been criticizing Scifi Channel's name change.

The odd thing is how many reporters seem to think we're annoyed that its "Syfy" specifically, and not some other name, like the rumored "Beyond" (they did say they were trying out 300 alternate names in trials)

the point is, I do think "SyFy" is a crowning moment of stupidity for a name (it's pronounced the same, so the hardcore fans will stay! But it will attract new non-science fiction fans!....ugh)

****Okay, *I* just categorically hate that they're changing their name...AND the reasoning behind it -- "attract a non-scifi audience", etc. -- because its a tacit admission that they couldn't live up to the title of being "the Scifi Channel"

So its a perfect storm for me in that it is BOTH a goofy way to try to make your name SLIGHTLY different (Beyond wouldn't have been quite as bad), AND I think its them just openly saying "we hate science fiction"

So I categorically don't like the name change, not so much for what it is, but that they changed it at all.

SYFYlis brought this upon themselves: why have their upfront THIS week? With all the hype from the BSG finale, EVERYONE has now heard that they're changing the name, and are focusing on that instead of BSG afterglow.

***I think Hinman on Airlock Alpha actually made a salient point: it's not so much that its an outrageously insulting move, but that it is the ***LAST STRAW IN A LONG LINE of slights, failures, insults, and abuses.

 

[Harvey]

Has Airlock Alpha really been making a fuss about it? Seems hypocritical to me. Hinman sold the brand name, after all. Even if he wasn't aware of who exactly wanted it, you can bet he had a pretty good idea, considering the name and the reportedly significant sum of money involved.

Honestly, I don't think complaining about the name is worth one second of energy. It's just a name. You're absolutely right that we should complain about the ECW, about Ghosthunters, about Law & Order, about the shoddy movies cheaply purchased from the Asylum, about the abrupt cancellations and renewals, about meddling that ultimately was damaging (BSG season three, Farscape season four), about the shoddy promotional department, and about any number of other things that contribute to the network insulting the audience's intelligence and maturity.

Changing the name from "The Sci-Fi Channel" to "SyFy" is hardly a change at all. It may be an effective bit of rebranding (and the network needs rebranding, the saturn logo and bumpers have grown tired and old), it may be ineffecitve (it's pronounced exactly the same, it's not like the network is changing in any significant way that it has not already changed).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Corporations rebranding themselves = shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

[Gertch]

I'm certainly not annoyed. And I don't see how this will attract non-scifi viewers. Perhaps if they just called it "S" they might be able to fool a few.

Let's face it, their movies are so bad they drive away regular viewers. Especially since they haven't had a decent show (my opinion) since SG-1 for any length of time. I've found myself watching less and less of Syfy.

If they really want to attract new viewers and keep existing ones they need to show some classics and some old ones we just don't see any more. Sliders, B5, Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, The Phoenix, etc.

 

[V]

Honestly, I don't think complaining about the name is worth one second of energy. It's just a name. You're absolutely right that we should complain about the ECW, about Ghosthunters, about Law & Order, about the shoddy movies cheaply purchased from the Asylum, about the abrupt cancellations and renewals, about meddling that ultimately was damaging (BSG season three, Farscape season four), about the shoddy promotional department, and about any number of other things that contribute to the network insulting the audience's intelligence and maturity.

that's quite an accurate list; I forget to point out often enough that the promotional department seems like they don't even watch this channel; frankly, I can respect "lets make commercials that families and women will be attracted by", but they don't even do those in more than a half-a$$ed fashion. The swirly purple clouds thing is really annoying, and I miss the old "it's like an alien computer" thing from when Farscape was on. But really, the bigger problem is just **PROMOTE your own shows***

but wow...wow....that neatly summed it all up in that paragraph there; the meddling (never learned that it didn't work), etc.

****but I think we should complain, because I truly feel it is the "straw that broke the camel's back".....even though it's openly acknowledging what we were saying: "Why bother calling yourselves the Scifi Channel if you don't really do that anymore?"

...its...its really an opportunity to complain about long pent up frustrations that led us to this point.

It's specifically like someone saying "are you upset that Enterprise was cancelled after season 4?" and the answer is "well....I'm upset that Star Trek got bad and HAD to be cancelled, but its actually really awful now so I agree to cancel it"

Corporations rebranding themselves = shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

No, as a channel, Skiffy is SOARING. They're re-arranging deck chairs on the Hindenburg!

 

[V]

I agree that as a channel, I'm not watching anymore but its the darndest thing that I do tune in for SPECIFIC things....i.e. FINALLY getting the Next Generation rerun rights for a marathon one night a week. Years with Spike having it was an embarrassment to them (but nice of Spike to give us basically 5 Trek hours every afternoon....sigh, good times)

but we're far away from the "Scifi Friday" powerhouse in seasons 1 and 2 of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, then Battlestar Galactica.

I categorically don't watch Eureka after hating the first episode, and now the "honeymoon" is over and it doesn't even have that "I'm a shiny new show" feeling going for it.

***apparently, based on the commercials aired during the finale of their old flagship show BSG, they're trying to rebuild themselves around 1-Stargate: Universe 2-Caprica 3-Warehouse 13

Of these, I doubt I'll like any. Either way, the first two air in fall. So nothing in summer but more Eureka season 3 and Warehouse 13....which sounds like another Flash Gordon, brought to you by the Eureka guys.

The darndest thing was they actually started running anime again (many people credit Scifi Channel running imported badly dubbed anime movies in the mid-90's as what first exposed them to anime....there was something magically gritty about watching an obviously imported and dubbed "Ghost in the Shell" "Akira" type movie really early on a saturday morning in the mid90's on the tiny scifi channel. And the first year of "Ani-Monday" was laughably bad, but then they got Gundam 00 and Gurren Lagann, which frankly put Adult Swim to shame. But they don't advertise it seriously, and I get the feeling its nothing more than an experiment to them.

*****wow, turns out what's taking BSG's 10:00 PM spot......is they're importing British scifi show "Primeval"! I've seen a few episodes and I've got to tell you....I really like Primeval

But they're morphing back into the "Rerun channel" in the mid-90's they used to be; can't be counted on for original programming.

Well, I suppose we'll be better able to see how they're coping with the loss, in a single year, of both Stargate: Atlantis *and* Battlestar Galactica, around next Christmas or so.

I think they'll produce Caprica at a loss, hoping it will net BSG fans, but when RDM leaves and Jane E takes over, it will turn into sludge and become a laughing stock. Universe...ugh.

It's that....they won't physically just stop making shows just because the network is bad; then again UPN kind of did that JUST as it was dying.

Really....it's.....during Farscape season 3 I honestly *believed* in the Scifi Channel becoming and standing for something greater.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm definitely annoyed.

I see it as an example of dumbing-down at the worst level. It's as if the channel execs think people are too vapid and shallow to understand or desire anything with "science fiction" or even "sci-fi" in the name. So they create a fake, bland, politically correct, mealymouthed, easily digestable phrase.

I'm not opposed to all name changes, mind you. At first I was pissed that Court TV changed its name to TruTV, but then I realized that so much of that channel's programming doesn't take place in a courtroom anyway. And at least "TruTV" doesn't sound as monumentally stupid as "SyFy".

 

[Gertch]

*****wow, turns out what's taking BSG's 10:00 PM spot......is they're importing British scifi show "Primeval"! I've seen a few episodes and I've got to tell you....I really like Primeval

It is? I watched this show with my daughter on BBC America. Great show. I'll definitely watch that.

I feel the same way with the other shows that are coming. Ugh.

 

[Rii]

Insofar as I care about the name or channel at all, "Skiffy" was a nice abridgement that doesn't really work now.

 

[DWF]

I could really care less if they change their name, I don't see what the big deal is.

 

[WendellM]

Well, I don't like the term "sci-fi" period (with apologies to 4E), so I was never too hot on Sci Fi Channel's name but could live with it since "Science Fiction Channel" is too long and "SF Channel" is unclear. Thus, I probably wouldn't mind them changing it to something entirely different (like "Imagine" or "IF" or whatnot). But a different, stupid spelling of "SciFi"? That's just awful and we hates it!

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

It's the PTBs apparently trying to appeal to texting teens who probably can't spell anyway. Annoying, unnecessary, stupyd...

Not that a channel that shows Wrestling of all things deserves to call itself SciFi anyway. :;snort;:

 

[cylkoth]

Honestly, I don't think complaining about the name is worth one second of energy. It's just a name. You're absolutely right that we should complain about the ECW, about Ghosthunters, about Law & Order, about the shoddy movies cheaply purchased from the Asylum, about the abrupt cancellations and renewals, about meddling that ultimately was damaging (BSG season three, Farscape season four), about the shoddy promotional department, and about any number of other things that contribute to the network insulting the audience's intelligence and maturity.

Complaining is more cathartic than serious belief that tptb will have a sudden change of heart. It is, as has been noted, the final straw in a very long line of anti genre machinations done in 'weening' the viewers off the hard stuff. What really grates is the continued stereotyping of the audience that enjoys the genre depiste the facts to the contrary. Their most critically acclaimed show prior to Galactica was Farscape, whose audience was nearly 50% female. Stargate has a huge female viewer base, as does-gasp(!) Star Trek. Yet these folks, rather than point this out to advertisers and encourage them to stop the gender stereotyping who's watching, they enable it with the sort of inane comments I've read in these stories and press releases.

Changing the name from "The Sci-Fi Channel" to "SyFy" is hardly a change at all. It may be an effective bit of rebranding (and the network needs rebranding, the saturn logo and bumpers have grown tired and old),

It's funny, but I found an old tape of Farscape last Sunday and watched it. It was recorded the Sunday before the premiere of Peacekeeper Wars, and I noticed the purple clouds and banners-and we're talking at least 5 years ago, and I thought a makeover was long past due. No other cable network has kept the same promotional graphics that long...And just a few hours later, bam. Not quite the makeover I was thinking of.

I could really care less if they change their name, I don't see what the big deal is.

I don't mind the name change...it's just that the one they've decided on, is just not cool. That's the big deal.

 

[Hermiod]

It's the PTBs apparently trying to appeal to texting teens who probably can't spell anyway. Annoying, unnecessary, stupyd...

Not that a channel that shows Wrestling of all things deserves to call itself SciFi anyway. :;snort;:

I refer you to the two or three thousand times I've been forced to remind everyone why Sci-Fi shows wrestling.

 

[MyCylon]

Why would I be annoyed that a tv station is changing its name? The only thing I'm interested in is whether or not they have anything worth watching. And even if they don't, the last thing I'm going to do is let that annoy me. I'll just watch something else.

 

[Hermiod]

^I think a few too many people are treating Sci-Fi like they're the only place on TV where you can watch science fiction on American television. Heroes is on NBC, Lost (it's about a time traveling island, it's sci-fi, live with it) is on ABC, Dollhouse is on Fox etc.

 

[V]

Why would I be annoyed that a tv station is changing its name? The only thing I'm interested in is whether or not they have anything worth watching. And even if they don't, the last thing I'm going to do is let that annoy me. I'll just watch something else.

the whole name thing isn't just cosmetic, but they're openly saying it reflects the "new direction" they want to take the show into

 

[Bob The Skutter]

It's not the name change that bothers me, I can understand the reason is to create a brand that they can use across different media and have a trademark, whereas Sci-Fi is just a genre. What I don't like is that they slagged off their natural audience in their announcement.

 

[commodore64]

Not annoyed, just think it's a dumb branding idea for several reasons:
1. They've been successfully known as Sci-Fi for years. SyFy is harder to remember for the time being.
2. It's going to cost a lot of money to get the general population to know them as SyFy.
3. This money, to me, seems better spent on improved programming.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Insofar as I care about the name or channel at all, "Skiffy" was a nice abridgement that doesn't really work now.

It'll always be Skiffy to me!