Syfy is the New Sci Fi, But Why?

Imagine how to pronounce Syfy

According to countless Internet reports, the well-known cable entity Sci Fi Channel is now Syfy. The new tagline for the station says “Imagine Greater,” but I think it should be “Imagine Nonsensical, Terrible Business Decisions.”

I can’t figure out why a 17-year-old cable network that already has brand recognition would change its name to an unrecognizable and ridiculously spelled moniker. Any ideas?

For the attention?

This name change is getting Syfy a lot of attention, albeit not very positive. I certainly wasn’t thinking about the Sci Fi Channel before I read about this change today. Now I am thinking about how dumb it is, and so are a lot of other people.

So perhaps they are just going with the “no such thing as bad press” philosophy. I did find an explanation on the all-powerful Wikipedia, and it actually made me laugh, kind of like the idea of getting an easy loan from a bank.

Well, that’s one way to look at it

So here is the Wikipedia entry on the reason Sci Fi gave in March when it announced it would be changing its name to Syfy:

On March 16, 2009, Sci Fi announced that it would be changing its name to Syfy, to end confusion over how to capitalize and stylize their name and as part of an on-going rebranding effort. Network officials also noted that, unlike the generic term “sci fi” which represents the entire science fiction genre, the term “Syfy” can be protected by trademark and therefore would be easier to market on other goods or services without fear of confusion with other companies’ products.

Ending confusion … not

The part about not being confused with other company’s products seems valid. There aren’t any other fools out there who want to exchange a perfectly logical, correctly spelled abbreviation for some logo that looks like something an illiterate middle school student would use in a text message.

However, “to end confusion over how to capitalize and stylize their name”? Well, I will let the masses speak for themselves. Here are the related search terms for “Syfy” on Google Trends:

sci fi channel, scifi channel, sify channel, scifi, syfy channel

It appears people are still confused. “Sify”? Hmm. I know, it’s the first day, and people probably will learn the right way to spell and capitalize it in time. However, if they never learned “Sci Fi,” will this be any different? Furthermore, pretty much every article by a journalist or blogger I’ve seen has written it “SyFy,” while the company web site uses “Syfy.”

Full disclosure

As you very well might have guessed or at least been suspicious about, I am not just concerned about whether this Syfy business will hurt the channel known for its science fiction, fantasy, horror and paranormal focus.

People have used a lot of terms to describe my dedication to using the written word correctly. “Grammar fascist” is my favorite. It absolutely drives me nuts that a business would go from abbreviating the term “science fiction” with the logical “sci fi” to calling it “Syfy.” In case you are wondering, it also drives me nuts when businesses use “z” instead of “s” or “k” instead of “c.” I won’t even start talking about my feelings on errant apostrophe use in business names. That will take a whole other post.