TNT probably gets better advertising rates and a better rate from cable companies because they have popular series, so they can afford a bigger budget.
But what if the glitzy alien effects are what attracts that audience? If so, SyFy should think about the effects budget as an investment that will put them in a stronger negotiating position vs cable. If any audience values glitzy effects, it's the SyFy audience.
As an example of this kind of thing, AMC's CEO is angry at the paltry 25 cents per household per month that they are getting, even in light of their highly rated (and no doubt highly-budgeted) series The Walking Dead. Sounds like he's going back to the negotiating table now that he's in a stronger position thanks to his zombie show. Maybe they'll be able to afford to get Frank Darabont back.
It just goes to show, sometimes you need to spend money to make money. Space opera on the cheap just doesn't strike me as the best approach. Of course, we're talking skiffy here, with their wresting-and-ghost-hunting programming strategy.
I'm sure there are ways to do this that won't put the audience to sleep. Maybe those "displays" are some VR type interface that, to the audience, is just as dramatically powerful as seeing starships in the same frame, blasting away at each other.
The main benefit of the Honor Harrington approach is that it's more "realistic" (to the extent the audience knows and cares about that) and that it hasn't been done a whole lot.
