Whatever You Think of Syfy, Get Ready for Free, Uh, Wyfy

(MoneyWatch)  In the annals of media property makeovers, I can't remember any that look as expensive as SCI FI Channel's changeover to SyFy, which was met with loads of negative online commentary when it was first announced several months ago. I don't know the dollar figure on the media buys, but I've seen the re-brand for months now on the sides of busses, as the front cover ad on various media and advertising trade magazines, on Gawker, and so forth. So much money was spent, in fact, that I now realize that despite my feelings back in March that perhaps the people at SCI FI would reconsider the Syfy name, it probably never would've happened; there was too much invested in it, literally.

In fact, Broadcasting and Cable reports that the SyFy rebrand still has a lot of promotional gas in the tank. SyFy (which comes into official use in July), will be underwriting a year of free Wyfy (uh, WiFi), within Union Square and Times Square in Manhattan, as part of its efforts to lift the brand out of strict science fiction and into somewhat broader fare; there's also "an interactive Imagination Park" slated for outside Rockefeller Center -- basically the front yard of parent company NBC Universal, and a sponsorship of an upcoming Tim Burton exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

As for the renaming controversy, you do have to hand it to SCI FI for playing a strong defense. SCI FI Digital general manager Craig Engler recently told me that the network reached out to bloggers to explain its positioning. It also, per B&C, bought up some URLs it thought might become hubs for complaint, like SyFysucks.com, though it didn't snap up every possibility. Network chief Dave Howe is using the irate email metric to gauge how ticked off the core Syfy audience actually is. When SCI FI cancelled "Stargate Atlantis", Howe claims he got 150 angry emails per day. In the four months since the announcement of the Syfy rebrand, he says he has gotten only 20.

Previous coverage of the Syfy name change on BNET Media:

• SyFy Lends Itself Not to Sci-Fi, But Syphilis Jokes
• SyFy's Dave Howe Discusses New Brand, But Not Wrestling