Starting this June, NBC-Universal-owned Sci-Fi Channel will be the SyFy Channel. The Sci-Fi Channel's - I mean SyFy's - logo is also getting a makeover. The new tagline will be "Imagine greater."
The renaming is just part of the channel's massive rebranding, which has been in the works for more than a year. Si-Fi Channel execs say this is better-suited to their goals and noted problems stemming from using a "generic" name. However, we have discussed execs' continual push to water-down the network and distance themselves from the science-fiction genre. And president, David Howe, addressed this directly: "We're more than just space and aliens and the future - the three things most people think of when they think of 'sci fi.'"
The rebranding has everything to do with business, but it isn't all about distancing itself from us geeks. The channel has 50+ science-fiction channels worldwide, but cannot trademark the phrase, "sci-fi." Executives had once discussed changing the name to "IF," but eventually settled on the word as a tagline. A long-running ad campaign for the network carried the tagline.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
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