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“What the frak are they thinking?”

Fanboys are outraged by the US SciFi Channel's promised rebranding to Syfy.

scifi-logoThe universe is crumbling. Fanboys are outraged.

“Sounds like the name of a water bottling company,” said one.

“Sounds like some kind of mop, blender, or gossip magazine,” said another.

Such was the reaction to the news that SciFi is going “Syfy.”

And this was the most frequent negative interpretation: “Sounds like slang for syphilis,” a viewer wrote, with fans agreeing “siffy” seems a more appropriate pronunciation for the network’s new name than “sci fi.”

Some media got in on the action too: “What the frak are they thinking?” asked Wired. “Dumbest rebranding ever,” declared Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

TV Tonight‘s own readers were agreed:

– “It’s not April Fool’s Day yet is it? What a ridiculous name change.”
– “People won’t have any idea what it’s about. It won’t work.”
– “Seriously, someone is getting paid a lot of money to come up with this!”

A spokesperson from Australia’s SciFi Channel was already monitoring local reactions on this site, and told TV Tonight it was not obligated to pick up the US branding, which is apparently part of a push to remind its audience it is not merely an “aliens and spaceships” channel. Maybe they’ve already unintentionally just got that message out there.

Many US fans are already saying that with the end of Battlestar Galactica this weekend there will be little incentive to stick with the channel anyway.

“Just change the name to USA2 and be done with it already,” one suggested.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

13 Responses

  1. I don’t watch the station much but Sci Fi is freaking cool. Like the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke why fix it? Syfy just sounds silly and like some kids show. Each time I see it, it looks like siffie or something.

    Strange strange move

  2. From 2001 the gorgeous Bonnie Hammer was boss of SciFi channel, she started to change programming to just off centre of scifi (a financial thing), I think she did a good job, TPTB must have thought so too, she’s now President of NBC Universal Cable, a massive promotion, fizz applauds loudly.

    The SyFy brand is acceptable to me, 8), it’s only a brand, their major news website will stay as SciFiWire other periphrals will still carry the SciFi brand ——-for now…..

  3. @ Brad Clarke “how about old sci-fi or adventure movies”, why would we want to see old crap like that, what it should be is new stuff and not old

  4. It is such a stupid name change. Problem is, Sci-Fi instantly identifies the channel, Syfy does not. So it’ll just blend more into the background.

    Focus should be on programming.

    As i said in the last thing, the people who run Sci-Fi.. i mean Syfy, don’t like science fiction, don’t want to run a science fiction channel. When that new management came on, they killed the stargate franchise, just because it’s not critically acclaimed, to then try and turn it into Battlestar Galactica. Which may or may not work, but it doesn’t matter, it’ll still only be the same people watching, who were watching the other Stargate series. It’s too late to reinvent it. But heys, what can you expect from management who treat the shows their audience likes with contempt and looks down on them because they don’t like the sci-fi shows they enjoy.

  5. Ok, I understand US reactions to the name change, cause – yanno – they have to comment on every stupid little thing like a bunch of ‘Ellen’ audience members.

    But c’mon you Aussies. The correct Australian response to this story is….”Who gives a rat’s?”

    Why do you care? The content of the channel isn’t going to change. They’ve swapped a couple of letters around in the name!

    Jeez…you could have used that time constructively to, say, post your opposition to internet censorship in Australia at Whirlpool….. *gives up, walking away, shaking head….*

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