Sci Fi Channel Network is Changing its Name

Really Sci-Fi?...REALLY?

Please see Capt. Red's opinion below after the awkward aricle cut and paste clip.
"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.”

Sci Fi is coming off the best year in its history. In primetime it ranked 13th in total viewers among ad-supported cable networks in 2008. It’s a top-10 network in both adults 18 to 49 (up 4%) and adults 25 to 54 (up 6%).".....

“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,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network. Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie. >“We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.” Mr. Howe said going to Syfy will make a difference.“When we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you’d text it,” Mr. Howe said. “It made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip, which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise.” Source: TvWeek

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like OMG, really? Syfy? why not SF? that's what i use for that genre in the library! i hate to snipe on it but i agree with what Snipe (geek diva) said "Syfy" is not only *not* less geeky, it's stupid and doesn't make any sense. The sci-fi genre is stronger than ever - why risk alienating your core audience by this stupid novelty name - especially when a name like "Syfy" doesn't guarantee that you'll reach anyone new. Devote the money that would be spent on new stationary for your new name to better programming, so current and future devotees are not stuck with crap programming like "Ice Spiders 6: The Shivering."