Back in July 7th 2009, the 16-year old “Sci-Fi channel” rebranded itself with the goofy name “SyFy”. While the Internet buzzed with comments like “Sounds like the name of a water bottling company,” and “Sounds like some kind of mop, blender, or gossip magazine,”.
They said in their press releases that the reason was “If you ask people their default perceptions of Sci Fi, they list space, aliens and the future,” Bonnie Hammer, the former president of Sci Fi who became the president of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions “That didn’t capture the full landscape of fantasy entertainment: the paranormal, the supernatural, action and adventure, superheroes.”
The real reason is that you can’t copyright the word Sci-Fi since its in common use. “We couldn’t own Sci Fi; it’s a genre,” Bonnie said “But we can own Syfy.”
It’s been months since the name change, and while I can’t argue with the new direction, the name still stinks. But that’s big business for you. In related news, next week “The Food network” is being changed to “The Fjuuuude network”.
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="43055 ">1 Comment
Eh, doesn't bother me. I agree with the move. The network got crap when they first came out by geek snobs who don't like the term "sci-fi." In literary circles, it's known as "speculative fiction." The "Speculative Fiction Network" didn't have legs, though. Syfy doesn't have all that baggage, and they can sue people for using it. Anyway, I don't get Syfy or Sci-Fi or any other cable network anymore, so I could care less.