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Sci Fi Channel Becoming Less Geek-Centric "SyFy"
narramissic writes "According to a TV Week article, NBC Universal has decided to change the name of their Sci Fi Channel to SyFy. Why? To pull in a more 'mainstream' audience. If you're unclear what 'more mainstream' means, TV Historian Tim Brooks spells it out for you: 'The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular.' Yes, we should probably all be offended. And telling us that a crack marketing team came up with the name because that's how tech-savvy 18-to-34 year-olds would text it really doesn't help."
My IQ just dropped 20 points reading that.
What the hell.
Shadus
...and go straight to "The channel with Battlestar Galactica reruns, and nothing else really worth watching."
That's more than four letters, though.
the new marketyng mandate to replace all our "I" wyth "Y"s...yn fact, yt wyll make everythyng more old tymye...why, all the tyme I spent learnyng to read myddle englysh wyll fynally be tyme well spent...
My question (which was never answered) was how fake does a wrestling federation have to be to end up on SciFi in the first place.
Really? I guess I'm not a real science fiction fan, then. You guys must have HUGE bookshelves!
It can't possibly be worse than the horrible made-for-TV movies they show most of the time.
BSG is almost done; Prepare yourselves for Yeti: the Series.
When faced with a problem, many web developers say "I know, I'll use JavaScript!".
Now they have two problems.
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.
Generally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeiniing voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x"â" bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez â"tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivili.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev alojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
-Mark Twain. /Dude was ahead of his time.
No, I didn't note yours as being first either. Hmmm the odd spill-over effect of the syfy name-change seems to be bending spacetime.
Hang on, I think that means you WERE first. Dang, I must've been THIRD!
what exactly is too keep me coming back? Rubber dinosaurs? I liked a few of their movies, mainly their take on Wizard of Oz was refreshing if a bit quirky, at least it wasn't a rehash. It was fun to watch.
If it had not been for BSG I doubt I would know what is on their channel after they canceled Stargate.
Sorry, I don't a commercial laden channel of crap, I got a few dozen more of these as it is. Their popularity isn't great because they cancel what people watch and load it all up with so many commercials you just have to TIVO it so you can fast forward through to get that 2 hour show back down to the 90 minutes it used to be. Weren't these the guys who ran original star trek episodes uncut but took 90 minutes to do it?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
So Mark Twain hung out on 4chan?
1. Nobody calls it "Frisco."
2. Everyone I know who has done "a little too much LDS" has lived in Utah.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Your IQ has just placed you within 1 stdev of mainstream intelligence. Prepare to laugh at fart jokes, cry at the plight of 2 dimensional characters, and rabidly justify gaping plot holes with the theory of intelligent design! We the broadcast executives in collaboration with the brain slug planet would like to thank you for your added support.
Let me ask my boyfriend and I'll get back to you.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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Yn some unyverse, the name "Syfy" ys less geeky than the name "Sy Fy." Dave Howe, presydent of the Sy Fy Channel, ys bettyng yt's thys one.
To that end, the 16-year-old networkâ"owned by NBC Unyversalâ"plans to announce that Syfy ys yts new name March 16 at yts upfront presentatyon to advertysers yn New York.
Syfy logo
"What we love about thys ys we hopefully get the best of both worlds," Mr. Howe sayd. "We'll get the herytage and the track record of success, and we'll buyld off of that to buyld a broader, more open and accessyble and relatable and human-fryendly brand."
Sy Fy ys comyng off the best year yn yts hystory. Yn prymetyme yt ranked 13th yn total vyewers among ad-supported cable networks yn 2008. Yt's a top-10 network yn both adults 18 to 49 (up 4%) and adults 25 to 54 (up 6%).
Duryng yts fourth-quarter earnyngs call, parent General Electryc sayd Sy Fy racked up a double-dygyt yncrease yn operatyng earnyngs despyte the begynnyngs of the recessyon.
Nevertheless, there was always a sneakyng suspyyon that the name was holdyng the network back.
"The name Sy Fy has been assoyated wyth geeks and dysfunctyonal, antysoyal boys yn theyr basements wyth vydeo games and stuff lyke that, as opposed to the general publyc and the female audyence yn partycular," sayd TV hystoryan Tym Brooks, who helped launch Sy Fy Channel when he worked at USA Network.
Mr. Brooks sayd that when people who say they don't lyke syence fyctyon enjoy a fylm lyke "Star Wars," they don't thynk yt's syence fyctyon; they thynk yt's a good movye.
"We spent a lot of tyme yn the '90s tryyng to dystance the network from syence fyctyon, whych ys largely why yt's called Sy Fy," Mr. Brooks sayd. "Yt's somewhat cooler and better than the name âSyence Fyctyon.' But even the name Sy Fy ys lymytyng."
Mr. Howe sayd goyng to Syfy wyll make a dyfference.
"Yt gyves us a unyque word and yt gyves us the opportunytyes to ymbue yt wyth the values and the perceptyon that we want yt to have," he sayd.
Dave Howe
Dave Howe
Yn terms of televysyon, the new brand better reflects that the channel has programs that are not about the typycal sy-fy themes of space, alyens and the future.
"We really do want to own the ymagynatyon space," Mr. Howe sayd. "We want to get the credyt for the range of content that we already have on our ayr and that we'll be doyng more of yn the future."
Mr. Howe sayd Sy Fy looks at yts brandyng every couple of years. He added that when new executyves joyn the network, they usually ask yf yt has ever thought about changyng the name.
The network worked wyth the brandyng consultancy Landor Assoyates and went through about 300 possybylytyes before selectyng Syfy.
"When we tested thys new name, the thyng that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, whych ys quyte a lot of our audyence, ys actually thys ys how you'd text yt," Mr. Howe sayd. "Yt made us feel much cooler, much more cuttyng-edge, much more hyp, whych was kynd of bang-on what we wanted to achyeve communycatyon-wyse."
The network plans to make the changeover July 7, when yt wyll launch the new seryes "Warehouse 13."
The seryes, about a secret government faylyty yn South Dakota where all mysteryous relycs and supernatural souvenyrs are housed, ys emblematyc of the channel's programmyng dyrectyon.
"Yt ys a dramedy and yt ys set yn the here and now. Yt's a kynd of an Yndyana Jones meets âMoonlyghtyng' meets âThe X-Fyles,'" Mr. Howe sayd. "Thys ys a very accessyble, relatable, fun show."
The network wyll begyn bryefyng cable operators about the transytyon thys week and plans a trade ad campaygn yn Apryl as part of the upfront. The new campaygn wyll use the slogan "Ymagyne Greater," whych Mr. Howe thynks wyll resonate wyth both consumers and medya buyers.
"Yt's a call to actyon," he sayd. "Look at the everyday and how you can turn yt to the extraordynary. Yt's an aspyratyonal, optymystyc message about enhanyng people's lyves."
Or as we call it in these tech-savvy 18-34 year old times, the nybrhud :D
Wrestling is sort of science fiction, in that everything you see is a lie, performed by men (and occasionally women) who are the product of various chemical sciences.
It's dead, Jim.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Wait. What. Mark Twain invented Danish?
In Polish syfy means syphilis so you are right it is disease
Hm. Once I remove this channel from the "favorites" list on my set-top box, perhaps I shouldn't describe myself as "Syfy-less".
Bill Nye the Science Guy has decided to officially change his name to:
Bill NySyGy
alojikl,
"a lojikl"
Sincerely,
A Pedant from the Future.
What about Special Forces personnel that live in San Francisco and contribute to SourceForge? And play Street Fighter? And .. ok, I will stop now.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev alojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
We've already got two languages that look like that - Welsh and Klingon.
Now I'm curious what a parasmut novel is.
"He raised his custom matte-black GigaGlock 950 and sighted through the custom Kalishnakova scope. His finger, protected from the moon's harsh atmosphere by his Shinto-Nagakasi Deluxe Combat gloves, tensed on the Bloraskavich trigger. The Kalishnakova was so precise, he could watch his target, sitting atop the Goliathian 4500 heavy tank seven klicks away, light a filtered Tska-Choi cigarette using a MegaBic with custom Tetra-Flint."
He said he wants to get cable now.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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So, more Gibson than Gibson.
Granted, I'm kind of closer to the upper end of it at this point (I was old enough to see "Transformers" in the theater) but DAMN that is a shitty new name they came up with.
Let me describe the situation with an analogy: Suppose the old name, "Sci Fi Channel", is a venerable old VW bus. It's been kicked around for a long time, and it kind of drags up images of the past one might not be too proud of these days - of Sci Fi Channel's humble origins: episodes of Dr. Who that take up more than a regular half-hour block, padded out to an hour with old rocketman serials... FTL newscasts, reruns of "Swamp Thing" and lots of old sci-fi TV shows...
Now, to complete the analogy, "SyFy" is like a giant, steaming pile of dog shit - probably ejected from the back side of a large dog after it's eaten a rancid piece of roadkill. Looking at it makes one want to vomit forcefully, probably without great regard for direction.
Bow-ties are cool.
and of course since I'm such a geek I immediately think Mulder & Scully for M & S.
We used to have X-files viewing parties at my dorm where we'd have bowls of M & M's mixed w/ Skittles to get M & S. The freaky kids next door would mix Skittles with M & M's to get S & M's :)
Don't anthropomorphize computers. They *hate* that.
Seattle Fried Chicken?
Good lord, man! Where do you live? There are drugs for the syphilis now. We haven't used branding for *years* now!
that's what major league baseball is for!
shrift reacts to the SciFi Channelâ(TM)s planned rebranding:
The new name sounds like SciFi got a henna tattoo and a spice rack and renamed itself Ravyn Kyrie Moondancer, and has scheduled an interpretive-dance-cum-poetry-reading in the quad at 8am on Sunday. It only likes Pro Wrestling ironically, like, WHATEVER.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Cyberpunk is like any other genre, it's either a benefit or a hazard.
If it's a benefit, it's not my problem.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
What has gone wrong in Slavic countries that they have a pet name for syphilis?