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Sci Fi Channel Becoming Less Geek-Centric "SyFy"

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the or-you-could-quit-cancelling-good-programs dept.

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."

6 of 798 comments (clear)

  1. Re:syfy.com by hansamurai · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They apparently didn't have trouble threatening syfyportal.com over the word SyFy though. They recently moved to airlockalpha.com and have a peculiar message when trying to reach them from Google.

    http://www.airlockalpha.com/?cmp=OTC-SyFyNotice

    --
    Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
  2. Re:SyFy? Sounds like a disease by hwyhobo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, Polish colloquialism for "syphilis" is singular "syf". "Syfy" (plural) means "zits", which is strangely fitting here. :O

    Still, my nomination for the dumbest name ever.

    --
    End anonymous moderation and posting on /.
  3. Re:SF! ... But they had to EpicFail by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 4, Interesting

    See, this is why PHB needs to go back to their retreats and stay away.

    SF used to be the preferred correct name as well. "SciFi" was considered a bastardized derivative. But we sorta lived with it because it was a language-shift thing.

    So now they had to go with a completely useless name that fails ALL counts. Beautiful.

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  4. Cool name: Syfy = filth [in polish] by jw3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is, indeed, an interesting coincidence. "Syf" (sing.) or "syfy" (plur.) in polish means filth, scum, acne and also syphilis: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syf. Makes also an interesting metatextual link to another recent Slashdot submission because of the common saying "syf i malaria" (syphylis and malaria) denoting a complete and utter mess, SNAFU etc.

    j.

  5. Re:My IQ by maxume · · Score: 5, Interesting

    TNN alienated their core audience and changed their name to something stupid. I don't have the numbers, but I bet Spike is making more money than TNN did.

    Comcast buying TechTv was similar, they wanted the distribution contracts to use to put crappy programming in front of 20 something tards (the key being many more 20 something tards than were watching TechTv)..

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  6. Re:Congratulations! by UncleTogie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...with geek cred, too: It may start OFF as "Dueling Banjos", but if my deafness isn't betraying me, the duet is from the old Atari 2600 game Vanguard {during the "diagonal" boards}...

    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!