I had hoped to look at the calendar and see it was April 1, so I'd know this was a joke. I'm still hoping my calendar is wrong, but according to The New York Times, it isn't:
Soon, to paraphrase Rod Serling - whose vintage series, "The Twilight Zone," is a mainstay of the Sci Fi Channel - executives will submit for public approval another name, not only of sight and sound but of mind, meant to signal a channel whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, Syfy.
Plans call for Sci Fi and its companion Web site (scifi.com) to morph into the oddly spelled Syfy - pronounced the same as "Sci Fi" - on July 7. The new name will be accompanied by the slogan "Imagine Greater," which replaces a logo featuring a stylized version of Saturn.
I may spell it Sci Fi forever in protest, the whole Syfy thing is pretty annoying, but I have almost four months to change my mind...
Update: Bill wonders if the change may all be about trademarks and intellectual property (see comments), but after reading more, including the following from TV Week, I'd wonder if it wasn't "Google searching" inspired, if not for it already dominating the top results for the search "Sci Fi":
In some universe, the name "Syfy" is less geeky than the name "Sci Fi." Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, is betting it's this one.
To that end, the 16-year-old network-owned by NBC Universal-plans to announce that Syfy is its new name March 16 at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.
"What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds," Mr. Howe said. "We'll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we'll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand."
[...]
“We need an umbrella brand we can attach to new businesses: Sci Fi games, Sci Fi kids. It does no use to attach ‘Sci Fi’ because there’s hundreds of sci-fi Web sites and sci-fi publications. So it’s changing your name without changing your name,” Mr. Howe said.
Update 2: Here is some more information on NBCU's purchase of the SyFyPortal name and URL.
Well, that’s just stupid.
Yes. Yes it is.
Is it April Fools Day already?
Screw them. I’ve been pronouncing it “See Fee” for a week now since hearing about it. This has to be one of the dumbest moves in the history of cable. I was hoping that someone with a brain would shut the idea down. I think it’s official. If FLASH GORDON didn’t prove it… this does: There is no one smart at SEE FEE.
“The tweaking of the Sci Fi name, introduced in 1992, is part of a rebranding campaign that seeks to distinguish the channel and its programming from cable competitors”
I wasn’t aware there was confusion about which channel is the “Sci Fi Channel”…
Um… Why?
The tweaking of the Sci Fi name, introduced in 1992, is part of a rebranding campaign that seeks to distinguish the channel and its programming from cable competitors — 75 of which are also measured by the Nielsen ratings service.
How will Syfy distinguish them? Sci Fi says pretty clearly what the network is and therefore seems like that should be distinguishing enough. Syfy seems like it would do the opposite. And it’s not like Googling Sci Fi doesn’t get scifi.com as the first result.
They haven’t seemed to have a problem with not being able to “own” Sci Fi up until now. Overall, just a bad idea.
Also it should be noted this is being done so they can “rebrand,” the network. They should just start airing good product, that would change its reputation.
I can’t wait for ESPN to change it’s name to EeEsPeeEnn.
Phonetic spellings rule.
haha, someone was bored in that office
Is this so people can’t complain about shows that aren’t science fiction?
Why do you think they are doing this???? I mean you say Sci Fi and Syfy the same way so is this just to waste money and trouble for an insider joke they are having or do they really think that changing the name to Syfy is going to draw in more viewers because of it’s abscure spelling?
This is a joke, right?
They’re probably doing this as an excuse to run shows that clearly aren’t Sci Fi, shows that would probably get them better ratings. Didn’t Court TV change its name to True TV or something as an excuse to focus more on reality shows involving criminals?
This is going to end up the same way as Tropicana. They’re going to be made fun of, and ridiculed. It won’t last.
What kind of ratings does the Tuesday westling show get? If it’s good that could be why they want to reband the channel.
ECW on Sci-Fi (or SyFy) averages between 1.5 million and 2 million.
I agree it sounds like an idiotic idea, but it’s all about the trademarking. This is the key takeaway:
It clearly comes with some big downside, I just don’t understand the value they get from having a trademarkable network name. “Bravo” isn’t trademarkable, is it? Neither is “USA”. Would love to hear from someone who knows more about trademark name IP.
Nick C, what happened at Tropicana?
Bill, no doubt they thought that was reason enough. It’s still stupid, and it won’t help them at all.
Putting good shows on the air on the other hand would.
Bill, let me point to a link:
http://www.freshfuelblog.com/2009/02/a-lesson-on-losing-brand-equity.html
It does a better job covering it than I can right now.
I think this is right up there with changing the Cingular brand to AT&T.