SyFy's Dave Howe Discusses New Brand, But Not Wrestling
The Sci Fi Channel’s own blog post about its planned name change to SyFy now has almost 1000 (mostly negative) comments and more than 1500 Diggs. But, in case you were wondering if there really was a rationale for what looks to be a reviled name change, I found a video on the Broadcasting & Cable site of Dave Howe, the channel’s president, explaining at length why the plain old Sci Fi brand just wasn’t good enough anymore. (It was shot at the network’s upfront presentation on Monday night.) As the audio quality is horrible, I’ve created a quick transcript, when I could make out what he was saying, of some noteworthy soundbites. You’ll have to imagine his British accent for yourselves.
About why to rebrand now:
During a downturn, and perhaps during any upfront, we have to get a big, bold vision out about who we are and where we’re going. … with the change in the media landscape and the way that people consume their content, now is the time when we really needed to figure out what is our branding for the future that is portable and is extendable … It’s a much more kind of strategic thing [than creating a new logo] … this is an important decision which we don’t undertake lightly.
About why to rebrand at all (if you’ve any familiarity with marketing, you’ve heard a version of this story a million times):
In a lot of respects our new name is catching up with our programming slate. If you look at the broad landscape of sci-fi/fantasy, it isn’t just about space really and the future, it’s about fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, superhero, action/adventure, history. … so this new brand makes more sense with our current programming slate, so this isn’t about any major change in direction. This is about reinforcing where we are and where we’re going.”
About how much the channel still loves it core audience (even if it did do a good job of pissing them off this week):
We’re very lucky. We have a very core, passionate, loyal audience. We love that and we value that audience clearly. It’s core to who we are. What I would say to that audience, and we continue to say this: We absolutely embrace the genre, and this isn’t about moving away from it. It isn’t an excuse to put “Law and Order” on our air every night. Trust me.”
One thing that goes unmentioned in Howe’s discussion of his network is, well, wrestling. You may wonder what wrestling has to do with sci-fi or any of the related genres he mentions above (superhero maybe?), and so do many Sci Fi viewers. Despite that, the network has recently added wrestling into its programming mix. While most of the negative commentary about the network this week has been about the new SyFy name, there’s been a healthy amount of belly-aching about the net’s decision to air wrestling. If Howe reads some of the online commentary criticizing the direction of the network, he’ll scrap it. Fast.
Catharine P. Taylor has been covering digital media and advertising for almost 15 years and is a frequent speaker at conferences about media and advertising. She posts daily to BNET Media, writes the weekly Social Media Insider column for Mediapost and also has her own advertising blog, Adverganza.com. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to the BNET Media Twitter feed.
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