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Not happy about SyFy's direction? Start your own sci-fi channel
Submitted by Capt. Xerox on July 5, 2010 - 9:35pm.
When the American Sci Fi channel rebranded itself to SyFy, not everyone was happy about the move, but from a branding and business perspective, it made a lot of sense, especially in the world of online search where a generic term like sci fi is going to turn up a lot of websites, whereas SyFy is more distinctive.
The creator of SyFy Portal, the website that relinquished the rights to the brand, takes a look back at the one-year anniversary of the switch, congralutes the network for its success and pats himself on the back for having come up with such a brilliant name.
The reality is that the brand name allowed them to get away from actually programming much science fiction in an effort to appeal to a broader audience. The core science fiction fans who were turned off by the move are now mobilizing an effort to create a channel which actually programs the genre that they love and not reality shows and wrestling.
I can back that idea, but do they actually need a television channel? Some independent producers of television shows are now looking at the web as their method of distribution, bypassing the networks completely. The most recent example is the slick sci-fi show called Pioneer One which was designed to be distributed as a torrent file.
Why not create a TV "channel" which distributes science fiction shows online the way that VODO does with indie filmmakers?
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They have sucked for years
The Sci Fi Channel (or SyFy… whateva!) lost its way years ago. It was first obvious to me one weekend several years ago when they had a marathon of "So I Married an Axe Murderer" and "Braveheart". Their original programming has also largely been utterly horrible. It has improved some in recent years… I've become a big fan of Eureka and Warehouse 13, and am currently watching Battlestar Galactica on Blu-Ray (I never gave it a chance when aired… I was sure they had screwed it up). But the quality remains very inconsistent. Sanctuary immediately comes to mind… I only saw the premiere episode, promptly dismissed it, and recently was stunned to learn it's still an ongoing series. WTF? There's also a huge library of older sci-fi material that surely they could get ahold of and air to fill up some time slots. Who wouldn't want to catch reruns of Alf once in a while? Seriously… they limited themselves to reruns of The Twilight Zone for far too long.
I really would like to see a sci-fi channel that takes the genre more seriously than, well, the Sci Fi Channel has in a long time. The name change doesn't bother me so much as them using it as an excuse to deviate from the core genre that many of us are starving to see more of. At least they now have the cojones to admit it. If they want to go more generic, that's fine and their business. In fact, I'd rather they did so completely so someone else can more easily step in who is more willing to do the genre justice.
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