[adrotate banner=”1″]SciFi Channel will soon cease to exist, and be replaced by Syfy, the channel for people who use Y’s for I’s. They are seriously changing their name to “Syfy”. Seriously. I am not joking. This is actually happening! I will have to use the term “Syfy Original” later this year. I don’t want to use that term, I will probably refuse to use that term for months, but it will happen eventually. We are doomed.

Sci Fi Channel Has a New Name: Now, It’s Syfy
By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: March 15, 2009

FOR years, television viewers, journalists who write about TV and services that compile listings have wondered how to refer to a certain cable network: Sci Fi Channel? Sci-Fi Channel? SciFi Channel? SCI FI Channel?

Soon, to paraphrase Rod Serling — whose vintage series, “The Twilight Zone,” is a mainstay of the Sci Fi Channel — executives will submit for public approval another name, not only of sight and sound but of mind, meant to signal a channel whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead — your next stop, Syfy.

Plans call for Sci Fi and its companion Web site (scifi.com) to morph into the oddly spelled Syfy — pronounced the same as “Sci Fi” — on July 7. The new name will be accompanied by the slogan “Imagine Greater,” which replaces a logo featuring a stylized version of Saturn.

…

The tweaking of the Sci Fi name, introduced in 1992, is part of a rebranding campaign that seeks to distinguish the channel and its programming from cable competitors — 75 of which are also measured by the Nielsen ratings service.

I wonder if this could have anything to do with money…

“We couldn’t own Sci Fi; it’s a genre,” said Bonnie Hammer, the former president of Sci Fi who became the president of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions. “But we can own Syfy.”

Bingo! SciFi Channel was tired of everyone talking about SciFi and it not being their network! Their Google Alerts must have been filled with fluff that they couldn’t put in powerpoint presentations to get more advertiser cash, so out comes a name change. And if it fails, they can just blame the recession and not the dumb name.