Mar 16 2009The Sci-Fi Channel Is Changing Its Name

To SyFy. Why? Well, I don't know why. But like Nas says in 'The Message', "a thug changes, and love changes, and best friends become strangers. Word up." Word up indeed, Nas, thanks for that.
By changing the name to Syfy, which remains phonetically identical, the new brand broadens perceptions and embraces a wider range of current and future imagination-based entertainment beyond just the traditional sci-fi genre, including fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure. It also positions the brand for future growth by creating an ownable trademark that can travel easily with consumers across new media and nonlinear digital platforms, new international channels and extend into new business ventures.
"Imagine Greater" will become the new brand message and tagline, inviting both consumers and advertisers into a new era of unlimited imagination, exceptional experiences and greater entertainment.
I didn't actually bother reading any of that, but I think it said something about becoming a much more generic cable station and not playing reruns of Star Trek: TNG anymore. Smart move. And speaking of which, rook to D2. Checkmate, bitches!
http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/sci-fi-channel-to-become.php [scifiwire]
Thanks to big jerm and Mike, who were going to change their names but realized they'd have to get new vanity license plates and decided against it.

Reader Comments
1. Elwood Moose - March 16, 2009 4:13 PM
FIRST
2. What? - March 16, 2009 4:15 PM
sounds like the short name for a nasty STD
3. I'm a Computer - March 16, 2009 4:19 PM
Actually I think it's a pretty clever idea... For a NERD! ohhh DISS!
*highfives, anyone?
4. McFeely Smackup - March 16, 2009 4:21 PM
So does this mean no more SciFi productions of giant snake movies, or generic monster who eats people flicks?
5. naas - March 16, 2009 4:21 PM
Weak, it looks stupid like that. It abbreviates 'shut your fukcin yapper' & it's directed to the firstarded
6. Charles Few - March 16, 2009 4:26 PM
After taking in a few minutes (ok hours) of -Sci Fi- Sy Fy channel made-for-tv horror movies this weekend, it's obvious that rebranding is really what they need, not to quit spending their cash on dreck.
7. Ashy - March 16, 2009 4:31 PM
So does this mean better giant amphibians-eating-humans movies or less?
*high fives to #3 because i'm nice like that
8. Vinny Mac - March 16, 2009 4:39 PM
LOL @ Nas reference!
Hollerrrr Nigguhhhhhhzzzz
9. catch22 - March 16, 2009 4:44 PM
meh... dumb. same shite... same pile
10. DreamFolder - March 16, 2009 4:52 PM
The SciFi Channel was a geek's dream that was never fully realized. Now it's to go the way of MTV, which doesn't actually play music anymore. I suppose we can look forward to more quality offerings like Ghost Hunters International and ECW, which are certainly all fiction, just not very science-fiction. At least the schlocky in-house monster movies brought to life some mythological creatures that were otherwise ignored (Manticore comes to mind.) and provided a venue for washed up actors - like the guy who played Chipotle on Star Trek TNG and Lou Diamond Phillips. It was amusing to see those guys again even if the movie was little better than a 7 year old's random babblings in front of a camera.
11. jb - March 16, 2009 5:08 PM
Christ, I hope whatever idiots decided on this don't mess with my beloved Eureka.
12. freak of nature-formerly Hannnukah Montana - March 16, 2009 5:12 PM
Oh...
This article inspires me of renaming my dick from "Shy Jimmy"...
...to "The Brown Dragon!"
Yes! I love it.
I gonna have fun wit him later. The Brown Dragon, what's up!
13. Nooken - March 16, 2009 5:24 PM
It's no longer just Science Fiction... it's Sciencey Fictiony... see broader!
14. Pew³ - March 16, 2009 5:24 PM
Hey Naas? When did you say all that stuff about love changing and friends becoming strangers? I missed that post.
15. JJtoob - March 16, 2009 5:26 PM
No anime yet?
16. Freddy K - March 16, 2009 5:31 PM
Thats just dumb.
17. photoshop-police - March 16, 2009 5:32 PM
Trademark Issues are going to ruin all intelligent thought.
Can you possibly dumb down our society any more than changing Sci Fi to Sy Fy ?
18. Moose Knuckle - March 16, 2009 5:47 PM
I thought they were changing the name to the "SLY FLY" channel. A whole network dedicated to mack daddy pimps and they ho's they love...
Annnnd "keeping Up With the Kardashians"
19. naas - March 16, 2009 6:08 PM
@14 Not sure, doesn't even sound like my rhetoric so I'm curious what you're thinking of or if I'm missing sarcasm.
20. Pew³ - March 16, 2009 6:10 PM
@19. I'm fücking with you Ted.
He was quoting Nas...your brother.
21. naas - March 16, 2009 6:23 PM
I like turtles
22. Niuthon - March 16, 2009 6:30 PM
Syfy means something like 'crap' or 'scum' in Polish :D. Perfect name for tv channel
23. J - March 16, 2009 6:32 PM
The real question is are they still going to forgo making good TV like Farscape in order to make total shit movies that are too crappy for even MST3K to consider destroying?
24. Zyclonis - March 16, 2009 7:01 PM
SyFy "Think more Gooder"
25. barry - March 16, 2009 7:21 PM
I'm not going to say this is a stupid idea, because I think that's already been said ad nauseum.
I will say that I have come to expect this sort of stupidity from the execs at SciFi. After Ghost Hunters, Wrestling, the douchebag psychic guy, Scare Tactics, and those lame monster movies they make, it's only par for the course that they woudl do this. This is their attempt to slowly divorce the network from "Science Fiction". When last I checked, reality shows are not fiction, and certainly not science related.
You CAN make a load of money on a network based entirely on Sci-Fi. I wish I lived in Canada where I could get Space: The Imagination Station on cable. They at least seem to play popular sci-fi shows.
If I could, I would cancel sci-fi after BSG is over. Alas, it's part of my cable package and my hands are tied.
I have nothing but hate for the execs at Sci-Fi and have for years. This changes nothing. It only brings out into the open what we're already known for a long time: they are stupid douchebags.
26. TinyZombie - March 16, 2009 7:46 PM
SyFy for really really geeky people, and kids that don't imagine to good.
***Magnum***
27. esco - March 16, 2009 8:52 PM
haha. loved the nas reference.
one on my all time fav songs?
28. formerly SPELLINGNAZI© - March 16, 2009 8:52 PM
We fear change.
29. Graf Zeppelin - March 16, 2009 9:03 PM
Just calling it Syfylis is much broader. Opens up to a whole new level of ... entertainment.
30. Daisy - March 16, 2009 9:15 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max invents the Hula Hoop but the company's legal department first calls it a bunch of different names, like Dapper Dan, Molinsky, and Bellini, before the product goes to market. Just when Max was about to become the town hero, Senator McCarthy calls him to appear before HUAC to defend his actions, at which point Max informs the congressmen that he only invented the Hula Hoop to meet chicks.
31. Daisy (TRO) - March 16, 2009 9:39 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max was on the bus on the way home from school, and a farmer shot a cow in the head, just as the bus pulled up.
32. Steve Klose - March 16, 2009 10:11 PM
I think Frak would be better with the way things are going on BSG
33. Ocelot - March 16, 2009 10:40 PM
All Daisies must DIE. The only thing worse than the "firstarded" are Daisies. Worry about those morons first, then worry about Syfy. This is not to say I condone their crappy programming. That's nothing new. WWF is SO science fiction.
34. Watch - March 17, 2009 1:31 AM
THIS SHIT SUCKS!!!!!
35. Gordon "Fücking" Shumway - March 17, 2009 7:38 AM
@33
Shut Your Fücking Yapper (SYFY)
36. naas - March 17, 2009 9:41 AM
hahaha
37. Harrison - March 17, 2009 9:47 AM
Look, as long as I still get Star Trek: TNG Mondays, I don't care what they call it.
Ok, maybe I still care, but only a little.
38. Spith - March 17, 2009 9:48 AM
Another sad example of the bastardisation of the English language.
39. Nordane - March 17, 2009 10:26 AM
Ah, brought to you by the same people who thought "New Coke" was such a revolutionary idea.
40. Watch - March 17, 2009 11:21 AM
ALL DAISIES MUST BE HACKED AND REMOVED FROM THE SITE!
41. TheJakester - March 17, 2009 1:02 PM
Syence Fyction??? Seems Your Finally Yonkers. Show Your Flags, Yankees. Says You, F*** You!
42. Amaranth - March 17, 2009 1:12 PM
gotta make spelling easier for the brothers
43. beedee - March 17, 2009 2:00 PM
i have a friend who works there that told me 3 weeks ago that this change was coming about and that EVERYONE who works there frakking hates it. This is totally the brainchild of some dipship that no one has the balls to say no to and everyone's just passing the buck and ignoring their gag reflex as they roll out the name change.
44. DrNecropolis - March 17, 2009 4:10 PM
But y y? (see what I did there?) They should have done something crazier like...ZyPhi or something if they want to mix it up. SyFy is plain dumb, looks like it should be pronounced "Siffy" or something.
45. VexVishnu - March 17, 2009 6:44 PM
I'm with 17 and 38 on this one. I have a friend that was born brain dead. He's pretty cool, but sometimes it just takes him a while to pick up what you're putting down. He spells like this. Why is it suddenly cool to spell like a mentally challenged kid?
46. Josh - March 17, 2009 11:51 PM
I took a survey about this two years ago. They asked opinions and suggested different names as alternatives. If I recall, I personnally didn't like SYFY. Not too bad, from the survey, you could see they wanted to get a larger audience rather than turn people away with the Science Fiction genre... not sure if they accomplished it with the new name though!
47. **southern_redhead** - March 18, 2009 12:17 AM
Wow..........hopefully now this will mean no more sucky wal-mart production of stupid horror movies.....that be wonderful...lol
48. Tom - March 22, 2009 2:24 PM
Syfy is the short word for both Syphilis and zits in Polish as well as several other European languages. Hey, at least you have to have sex to get the syph which is a step forward for the people behind SciFi/SyFy.
49. wow - March 23, 2009 5:28 AM
very good.....
50. metin2 yang - January 15, 2010 12:33 AM
good yang
51. metin2 yang - January 15, 2010 12:34 AM
wall gold
52. mbt - March 2, 2010 1:57 AM
XN thank you for your sharing.