In a truly bewildering marketing move, the Sci Fi Chanel has announced they are rebranding themselves SyFy. Here is Sci Fi President David Howe's rationale for the new name:
Although this corporate speak is intentionally vague, further information from the TV Week sheds more light on the matter.While continuing to embrace our legacy and our core audience, we needed to cultivate a distinct point of view with a name that we could own that invites more people in and reflects our broader range of programming.
So Sci Fi is a Science Fiction network... that hates Science Fiction? No wonder their programming is so crappy (ECW Wrestling? WTF?) Fan reaction to this name change has been universally negative, but the higher-ups at Sci Fi aren't likely to listen, since they regard their fanbase as dysfunctional antisocial geeks.“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.”