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Article on SyFy Channel

777

777

Lieutenant Commander
Red Shirt
If this is truly what the heads believe, then it may be time just to kill "SyFy" channel completely. :brickwall::rolleyes: . Way to go for being passionate for Science Fiction.

What are the odds that a true SciFi channel can be set up by someone who actually loves the genre?

from http://www.tv.com/the-face-of-syfy-howe-to-hammer-away-a-channel/webnews/236724.html

In 2002, one year after becoming president of the then Sci Fi Channel, Bonnie Hammer admitted to Advertising Age, "I know we need to serve people who aren't geeks." Last year, Dave Howe, current president of Syfy, relented in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, "The issue that we've always had with Sci Fi is that it only communicates three things: Space, aliens and the future." As ambassadors for a channel named Syfy, Hammer and Howe sure don't seem to like Science Fiction.
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Dave Howe joined the channel in 2001 as Executive VP of Marketing & Brand Strategy and is currently President of Syfy. Bonnie Hammer joined as Programming Manager in 1998 and within 3 years became President. Currently Bonnie is President of NBC Universal Cable which oversees programming on Syfy. Since they began with the Syfy they've been attempting to change the channel into something different.
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When the Sci Fi Channel changed names to Syfy last year it came as a shock to most viewers – especially the fans. In a video by Broadcasting & Cable, Dave Howe explained the change:
"In a lot of respects our new name is catching up with our programming slate. So if you look at the broad landscape of sci-fi/fantasy, it isn't just about space, aliens and the future. It's about fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, superhero, action/adventure, mystery. And I think a lot of our content speaks of that: Ghosthunters, Destination Truth, Estate of Panic. And a lot of shows which are much broader, much more relatable than what people expect from us."
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In 2003 a marketing campaign was created aimed to reach Science Fiction loving fans that are "not geeks". Roger Guillen, acting VP for Creative at the time, spoke to Animation World Network about the first time the Sci Fi Channel changed their logo. They wanted to squash Saturn from the logo because it "played right into the pejorative view of Sci Fi." Guillen explained why it was kept; "We have a lot of equity in the planet, a lot of our core viewers like the idea of a Saturn logo." And so it stayed part of the logo for 6 more years. Today's Syfy logo, created under Dave Howe, notoriously eliminated the Saturn icon cherished by viewers. This was one of many actions taken by Syfy over the years against their fans desires.
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Why is Wrestling on Syfy?
"If I were to give you [the] USA [network], what would you do?" Jeff Zucker, President of NBC Universal, asked of Bonnie Hammer in 2004. She shared this story in interviews with the New York Times. Her response? "First of all, I wanted to give it a brand. Nobody knows what USA is. And the other thing was to bring back the W.W.E. to its rightful home." Last year Syfy underwent a brand change and this year took on WWE Smackdown. Coincidence?
Before the WWF ever aired on USA in 1993, Bonnie's supervisor had told her she would be responsible for bringing wrestling to the network. Hammer gave her boss the finger and almost resigned. She told the LA Times, "I was so startled. I thought, 'This is what my career is coming to? But Bonnie went through with it and forged a 7 year and growing relationship with Vince McMahon, CEO of the WWE, that she has fervently protected since.
In 2000 the WWE left USA for TNN (now Spike). Ultimately Bonnie fought hard to bring WWE back to USA in 2005. David Zaslov explained it to USA Today:
"The reason we were in the game was because (WWE Chairman Vince McMahon) and his whole crew loved Bonnie and believed that she understood brands. But the (price) was big, and there was a question about whether we should step up to the plate. She fought every battle to get that thing to the finish line — including to raise her hand and say, 'I will make it work.' "
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Science fiction' to most people conjures up a narrow definition of space, but the term 'fantasy' is much more appealing, especially to women," Dave Howe told AdWeek a year before changing the Sci Fi Channel to Syfy. "[Fantasy] doesn't just mean swords and sorcery, but includes the world of magic, supernatural, the paranormal. And women are more open to the paranormal and supernatural than men are."
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I think it's more a reflection of the times. There just isn't that much actual science fiction around anymore. Even Canada's sci-fi channel Space doesn't have that much legitimate science fiction anymore. Mind you, Space doesn't show wrestling, making it a better channel than SyFy.
 
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Damn those comments are infuriating.

I don't think I've watched the Syfy channel in months now. I hope it tanks.
 
To be fair, the wrestling thing is only a couple hours a week. The way people talk sometimes, you'd think syfy was running it 24/7!
 
I have no problem with them diversifying their brand image to include a broad range of sci-fi, fantasy and horror. And that's been a successful move for them since their sci-fi lite, fantasy and paranormal shows have been drawing much better ratings than their more sci-fi oriented shows lately. Of course I hope they keep sci-fi in the mix, including space opera, as they move forward, but I've always seen them as an SF&F outlet rather than a strictly sci-fi one, so if they want to make that more explicit in their branding that's fine with me.
 
I'll never watch Syfy again. I know it doesn't make a bit of difference in the long run, but the show that brought me five more seasons of SG-1, Atlantis, BSG, and Farscape is dead to me.
 
Starbreaker said:
I'll never watch Syfy again. I know it doesn't make a bit of difference in the long run, but the show that brought me five more seasons of SG-1, Atlantis, BSG, and Farscape is dead to me.
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So if they put on a space show you hear is great you won't watch it? That doesn't make sense to me.
 
Greg Cox said:
To be fair, the wrestling thing is only a couple hours a week. The way people talk sometimes, you'd think syfy was running it 24/7!
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What's annoying about the wrestling is that it plays during the time that used to be relegated to Sci-Fi's big science fiction shows: Stargate, Farscape, BSG, etc. I used to love my SciFi Fridays because it had all of my favorite TV shows in one big 2-3 hour block.
 
There's PLENTY of SCI-FI around!!!! Its just that most of it's NOT on the Syfy channel!!!
 
geez so much stupidity in those articles. "Geeks are like icky & have cooties, & we want the cool people to like us... also we're gonna show more fantasy cuz its got stuff like fairies & vampires & girls love that stuff but not guys cuz theyre too macho so we show them wrestling."
 
Cancelling Caprica upset me but with the show's lukewarm response from both critics and fans and the ratings not being great, it's not exactly unexpected.

I just remember when one of their staff was talking about the need for the next Star Trek or Farscape. What the hell happened to that. Just give me a good series about space, aliens and the future and I'm a happy camper.
 
I've long since given up on Sci-Fi (fuck the rebrand) after the shit they pulled with Farscape along with canceling a long stream of shows that were interesting but not complete winners including The Invisible Man and Dresden Files. Eureka remains the only thing worth watching on the network and I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been tainted in some way or canceled at this point.
 
Science fiction' to most people conjures up a narrow definition of space, but the term 'fantasy' is much more appealing, especially to women," Dave Howe told AdWeek a year before changing the Sci Fi Channel to Syfy. "[Fantasy] doesn't just mean swords and sorcery, but includes the world of magic, supernatural, the paranormal. And women are more open to the paranormal and supernatural than men are."
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Soooo... why not have "fantasy" in the name? It would be better than this bastardized "don't call it SciFi because we don't want to be associated with geeks, plus we need a protected brand name, so why don't we just change the spelling and call it SyFy, ha ha, SyFy, that's cute, it sounds like it means something but it actually doesn't mean any more than USA does, now we can put on any programming we want" nonsense. Hell, "Ghost Hunters", wrestling, and their Unoriginal Monster Movies are all fantasy anyway. It would be honest.
 
Silvercrest said:
Science fiction' to most people conjures up a narrow definition of space, but the term 'fantasy' is much more appealing, especially to women," Dave Howe told AdWeek a year before changing the Sci Fi Channel to Syfy. "[Fantasy] doesn't just mean swords and sorcery, but includes the world of magic, supernatural, the paranormal. And women are more open to the paranormal and supernatural than men are."
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Soooo... why not have "fantasy" in the name? It would be better than this bastardized "don't call it SciFi because we don't want to be associated with geeks, plus we need a protected brand name, so why don't we just change the spelling and call it SyFy, ha ha, SyFy, that's cute, it sounds like it means something but it actually doesn't mean any more than USA does, now we can put on any programming we want" nonsense. Hell, "Ghost Hunters", wrestling, and their Unoriginal Monster Movies are all fantasy anyway. It would be honest.
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I don't see the problem really, it is still phonetically the same name, so I don't see how it disassociates itself from geeks to any significant degree. And I can certainly appreciate the need for a protected brand name.

Anyway, i'm sure these people have done their market research, if it's not a sustainable business model then I don't really know what people expect from them.

Personally I think they've had some great shows, and they seem to be continuing to develop shows that appeal to the robots and aliens crowd alongside some more accessible fare. I don't begrudge them the need to broaden their output to stay alive.
 
Out Of My Vulcan Mind said:
Starbreaker said:
I'll never watch Syfy again. I know it doesn't make a bit of difference in the long run, but the show that brought me five more seasons of SG-1, Atlantis, BSG, and Farscape is dead to me.
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So if they put on a space show you hear is great you won't watch it? That doesn't make sense to me.
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I really don't think they have any intention of doing that. They might get a couple million viewers for Blood and Chrome, but I don't expect it to last long either.
 
My post attempted to ape their train of thought, but that also made it a little incoherent. To clarify: the problem is that it IS phonetically the same name. It neither disassociates itself from the geeks, nor accurately represents the channel's programming. So what good is it? And since David Howe keeps going on about the concept of fantasy (and it DOES represent their programming), why not use that instead? If you want something brandable, call it "FantaScy" or some such thing.
 
I don't mind non-space-based sci fi. My favorite sci fi series of all time (Lost) was not set in space and featured no aliens (unless there's more to the island than they're telling us).

But I'm sick of there being virtually no space based shows at all worth watching (I'm down to The Clone Wars and Futurama, I'd like something live action please) and Skiffy has a lousy track record even with Earth-based shows. They should be giving us at least one show of comparable quality to The Walking Dead to make up for the tsunami of crap at all other times.

They might get a couple million viewers for Blood and Chrome, but I don't expect it to last long either.
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I think it could survive if they cynically turn it into a TV version of a video game, with just enough strategy and character development that we can call it a "story." I'm kind of surprised no one has attempted a space opera cable series before that goes right for the adrenaline rush element. I wonder if Skiffy has any plans to develop video games under their brand (or do it now) because creating a franchise on TV and spinning off into other media could actually make the low ratings it's bound to get worthwhile.

If you want something brandable, call it "FantaScy" or some such thing.
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FantaSci? Sci-Fan? Scitasy? :D (Sounds like a disease.)
 
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