lamphorn

Now see here. This needs to end. The cable channels are all becoming indistinguishable from each other. They're ALL veering into reality/sports/crap. Remember what the M in MTV stood for? You know that Spike was actually a country music channel? Remember when VH1's tagline was "Music First"? Now it's "you're voted off".

So now The Sci-Fi Channel is the latest to disappear. I say disappear because the company has stated publicly that changing the name to "Syfy" allows them to break "free" of the sci-fi mold.

And what's replacing it? A brief look at the former Sci-Fi channel will reveal, yes, Pro-Wresting. I shit you not, the Sci Fi Channel is showing Wrestling. Also they're apparently dropping Star Trek and adding more reality shows and fucking fake ghost shows.

Soon you won't know whether you're watching Sci Fi, or the History Channel (Ice Truckers??? This is "history"?), or Bravo, and Court TV (renamed "Tru" so they can drop the court stuff and run reality shows)... because they have ALL abandoned their own missions and are bringing nothing but cheap reality shit and fake ghosts.

Fuck Syfy right in the y.

Gunde

You're right and it's only gonna get worse

DJariya

What is the point of your rant? This is such old news. There was a 4 page thread of people bitching about the name change

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/551...syfy-july.html

SyFy Channel isn't a great channel by any means, but they actually do produce scripted shows.

Let's see:
Eureka
Warehouse 13
Stargate: Universe
Caprica
Sanctuary

They also produced Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. The 1 wrestling show and the Ghost Hunters are such a small part of the channel (more like filler than anything)

Orbi-Wan Techno

And they were showing wrestling way before they decided to change their name. Welcome to the party.

ChrisHicks

You really missed the boat for the wrestling. When it first started they had a "zombie" wrestler just so the show could fit into the realm of the network.

lamphorn

Yay, the thread police have arrived to break up the party.

FRwL

Scifi channel is a joke of a joke. They have the potential to be a real movie channel and show, oh i don't know, actual scifi movies from the past. Instead they went "nah, let's keep producing shitty made-for-tv movies, hoax hunters, oh and wrestling o yea."

Patman

Didn't they change the name so they could trademark it?

DJariya

Well, you didn't really offer a compelling argument other than a paragraph of bitching and cursing.

As I pointed out the channel still does produce science fiction themed shows and of course a few shitty made for tv horror movies.

And the name change was announced back in July. So you could have resurrected that thread if you wanted to bitch.

dx23

Kdogg

SPIKE was never a country music channel. That was TNN (The Nashville Network). When it became SPIKE they flat out made it clear they were repositioning. I would compare it to a radio station changing formats.

Anyway, niche programming is dying. With fewer people watching TV, networks have to expand programming to appeal to a broader audience. Unfortunately that usually means targeting the least common denominator.

Networks aren't there to provide good programming. They are there to attract the most viewers. If Syfy loses you but gains two women who will watch The Ghost Whisperer you think they care.

Double_Oh_7

I think it's funny they didn't want a complete change... they wanted it to sound the same but spell it like an eighth grader.

Ayre

My favorite is The Learning Channel becomes TLC and does away with anything involving learning.

Vipper II

Can you blame 'em? No one wants to be learnin nothin on the tee-vee these days.

Navinabob

The entire reason stations show programming at all is to sell ad space. That is their one and only purpose. Awards, critic praise, DVD sales and such are all just icing on the cake, but don't kid yourself, it is all about the commercials. There is no "duty" to the fans to keep some sort of brand purity, just spin they can pitch to advertisers about how they are moving away from a tiny niche to attract a broader base.

arminius

Its funny that with all the channels on cable niche programing became possible. So we had all these history, science, music... channels. Now they are all devolving into the same format so we will have a plethora of the exact same thing. Wunderbar.

Ropes Pierre

Have you seen their "new" commercials that seem to target hipsters as a demographic?

And what IS the deal with airline food?

fujishig

While we're on current events, screw you G4TV! Where's my TechTv?

Josh-da-man

Interestingly enough, I think it might have been "The Nashville Network" who started all of this crap.

TNN was, at its inception, a music video channel that ran country music videos. Then, they started playing Dukes of Hazzard reruns a few times a day.

Before long, they had dumped the music videos and changed their name to "The National Network" and became a sort of generic cable channel like TNT or USA.

And then they eventually changed their name to "Spike" and drew the ire of Spike Lee (but that's a different thread altogether).

But I remember, at the time, it was an unusual move for a cable network to break their original programming and start running syndicated programming.

Jason

And yet, every time I turn on this channel, I see ghost hunters, TNG reruns, or movies from The Asylum. Unless it's a holiday, then it's a twilight zone marathon.

They canceled Farscape. Didn't lift a finger to pick up Enterprise or Firefly when they were canceled by other networks. Rarely rerun popular shows (Galactica, Dr. Who).

They're jerks.

Jason

God, I miss Kate and Leo. At least they run Ninja Warrior.

devilshalo

50 gazillion times a week.. I can never know what season I'm watching.

gmanca

I used to love coming home from High School and watching Star Trek TNG and Miami Vice back to back. Those were the days.

Match

I miss "The Invisible Man" on Sci-Fi.

Tommy Ceez

Eventually everyone will get sick of generic channels with the same programming and we will get niche channels again

Anyway

I search for shows that look interesting and Tivo them

What do I care what networks position themselves as?