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The most idiotic name change, right up there with the Wii ever.

http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/sci-fi-channel-to-become.php#more (http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/sci-fi-channel-to-become.php#more)

My god why are they doing this? This is the most pointless, dumbest, generic, f**king idiotic thing they have ever done. They feel they have to grow beyond the constraints of a name? Your the f**king Sci-Fi channel your supposed to show Sci-fi related shows.
I like this line "Syfy more clearly captures the mainstream appeal of the world's biggest entertainment category, and reflects the network's ongoing strategy to create programming that's more accessible and relatable to new audiences."
So you guys are saying that Sci-Fi a term witch applies to such books as Dune, 2001, War of the worlds, Foundation, which also applies to such movies as Starwars, Solaris, Alien, Blade Runner, Children of Men, which applies to such tv shows as Star Trek, Star Gate, Babylon 5, Farscape is too limiting of a term? Maybe whats limited is your actual interest in this genre.
Another thing is there new tag line "Imagine Greater" God its like the rejects from Apples marketing team got hired by these guys.
Another line I like "Syfy—unlike the generic entertainment category "sci-fi"—firmly establishes a uniquely ownable trademark that is portable across all nonlinear digital platforms and beyond, from Hulu to iTunes. Syfy also creates an umbrella brand name that can extend into new adjacent businesses under the Syfy Ventures banner, including Syfy Games, Syfy Films and Syfy Kids."
So this has nothing to do with actually improving your line up, its only purpose is so you can further water down your programming. And SyFy kids? come on! Is there a need to make this term kid friendly, its bad enough that kids now days probably couldn't spell Science Fiction, now you just go and further confuse them with this non abbreviation of science fiction.

Sci-Fi has always been a genre crossing term, as it can apply to both horror and fantasy as well. SY-Fy looks so f**king gay. AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Well at least theres the Chiller channel, for a time at least, until some big wig exec decides to buy it and turn it into a shadow of its former self. Looks like I'll have to take SY-Fy (so freaking retarded) off my favorites now.

Translation: We want to show some programming which we think will be lucrative but doesn't qualify as Sci-Fi under the most flexible interpretation of the label. So we've adopted a meaningless word as our "genre" and whatever we want to show, we'll claim that fits.

Wonder what it is they're trying to make room for? Pro football? People's Court? Spinoffs of The Real World?

You know what the sad thing is?
I'd bet that Sci-Fi probably paid thousands upon thousands of dollars to a consulting firm to come up with that name change.


"Imagine Greater"?  I don't think I've heard a more stupid catchphrase in my life.  A 5th grader could've written something better than that.
When you see stuff like this happen, you have to wonder what the hell the bigwigs were thinking.

I see this Saturday their big movie premiere is "I Am Omega", an Asylum movie that's a blatant rip off of "I Am Legend", which was itself a remake of "The Omega Man".

Behold the power to Imagine Greater  :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle:

So, they just gave us a more lengthy way of saying, "We're dumbing ourselves down even more!"  Awesome.  As if I didn't already lose enough faith in the Sci-Fi Channel. 

I don't know; I could really be down for a Rollerball league.

As just about everyone before me has said, so they won't have to blush whenever they show a slasher movie or just about anything else for that matter :|

I agree with you guys that this sounds dumb, but I doubt it reflects any real change of direction for the channel or dumbing down of the product.  I think the part I quoted describes the real business reason for the change.  They can't own the generic term "sci-fi," so it's difficult for them to do branding for spinoff ventures.  The new name is stupid, but at least they can register it as a trademark.

I hate their dumb new name and I hate the fact I'll have to type out both names for years because the other one is already a common search option.  I will be particularly upset when they start the "Syfy SciFi" crap I know they will do.

I need to be less angry on the internet!

I see you've all already heard.  I posted about this at Cosmic Cinema under:
As Battlestar Galactica ends so, too, does the Sci-Fi Channel (http://cosmic-cinema.blogspot.com/2009/03/as-battlestar-galactica-ends-so-too.html)?

Interesting timing for this announcement.  The last original series they have currently in their rotation is about to end and, suddenly, out of the blue, they announce they're going to become the syphillus network.  Just in time for their summer programing line-up which I've heard described as being comprised of O.C. style series.  Don't know what an O.C. is but it sounds like shallow angsty emo drama.

So, yeah, perfect time to change the network name to something that sounds like a veneral disease.  I'll bet that's even how this change was pitched: "Sex and VD, that's what will appeal to the youth market!"  :lookingup:

You know I didn't even think of that: 'SyPhi' is a much better version than what they came up with!

Considering what most of their programming has been for the last several years, I can "imagine greater" for SciFi.  SyFy...?  Sigh.  :bluesad:

I wouldn't even mind if they just came out and said "We can't copyright the generic term 'Sci-Fi', so we're changing it to 'SyFy' (yes, we know it's lame) so we can make more money and put it into our programming".  But no, they've got to give us this garbage about global lifestyle brands, a "uniquely ownable trademark that is portable across all nonlinear digital platforms", I mean, good god, does anybody listen to this crap and say "Gee, that guy must be really smart, look at all the big made-up words he's using"?  Or are you all like me and recognize "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bull****" when you see it?

I've pretty much given up on these accountants anyway.  I'm their core audience and they abandoned me back in the mid-late '90s.  I still watch their original movies, only because I'm a glutton for punishment.  But their lame reality shows, wrestling, and endless reruns of Ghost Hunters (which I actually used to like) and that lame Ghost Hunters International, man...it's either the History Channel or a DVD for me in the evenings.

 :hatred: Absolutely not.