16 March 2009

A classic wtf moment

Somedays you don't know whether you should laugh or cry.

Take this latest bit of news about Scifi channel. Apparently they are going through an image makeover and hence will call themselves Syfy instead of Scifi.

Why?

"... to move away from the genre’s association with geeks and space aliens."

Charming.

Obviously the concept of niche audiences is a strange notion for these folks.


Source:
Link

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Love their tagline the best - "Imagine Great" now THAT'S a 'What the FRAK' moment if there ever was one!

Aktief Kulture said...

So true. This definitely kills whatever is left on Scifi-soon-to-be-Syfy, doesn't it?

Unknown said...

My bad... tagline is "Imagine Greater"... same difference as far as my comment was concerned.

I'm in TOTAL agreement re your niche audience comment - I think what Scifi/Syfy don't realise is that those in the niche are more invested/comfortable in the genre of their choice and therefore will be a more loyal following as long as you don't fr... mess with the nature of their content... which I take they've done and are continuing to do...

AAaand also - I think appreciation for all things Science fiction has grown, and continues to grow... the Great Pie... erm... SpySci... no... what was it... oh yea... SyFy guys seem, to me, to alienate this growing audience...

BUT should Stargate Universe have even an iota of SG-1's charm - I'm still *sigh* in... till they screw THAT up too - I was concerned with their initial publicity of the show... by announcing a herd of main characters in their 'tweens'.

Aktief Kulture said...

When you read the full article that had Syfy "Imagine Greater", it seems like they came up with SciFi so they don't have to call it science fiction. Oh boy. It just gets better doesn't it?

Quote:
“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.”

Well, we can only hope that Stargate Universe will turn out ok. It has a decent chance and Robert Carlyle(?) is linked to project as are some of the older SG characters. On the other hand, when they launch it on that ponsy-named channel, maybe the show will be under pressure to be less geeky and more trendy?

Web series is the way to go. Dr Horrible to the rescue!

Unknown said...

Carlyle's a good start... and it (Stargate Universe) seems to be ok-ish FOR NOW... I reserve judgment till it's 'on air'...

As for web series - they are the way to go. BUT TV is going to resist that and throw everything it's got at delaying that which is inevitable...

God/Alien-Master-Race/Other-Controlling-Entity please, PLEASE, PULEEASE give us (the Maldives) a decent ISP!!!


Please?

Unknown said...

Recent development on the SyShmai Channel;

http://www.airlockalpha.com/news426171.html

Aktief Kulture said...

Some of the comments at the Channel yesterday was asking about SyFy Portal. This explains it, doesn't it? After reading that link, I feel bad for the guys behind that website. But then it looks like another instance where network tries to mess with true scifi fans like those guys.

You honestly wonder if any of those network guys ever keep track of fan sentiment from the internet.