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Sci Fi Channel (United States)
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Sci Fi Channel, often stylized SCI FI Channel, is an American cable television channel, launched on September 24, 1992, that specializes in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. It is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal.
Sci Fi Channel is available in high definition, but often broadcasts in 4:3 format rather than the traditional HD format of 16:9.
channel was launched on September 24, 1992 as a joint venture between Paramount Pictures, USA Networks, and Universal Pictures.
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Encyclopedia
Sci Fi Channel, often stylized SCI FI Channel, is an American cable television channel, launched on September 24, 1992, that specializes in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. It is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal.
Sci Fi Channel is available in high definition, but often broadcasts in 4:3 format rather than the traditional HD format of 16:9.
History
The channel was launched on September 24, 1992 as a joint venture between Paramount Pictures, USA Networks, and Universal Pictures. In that time, network programming included the old television series Dark Shadows, the film serial Flash Gordon, and other science fiction movies and series.
The channel was seen as a natural fit with classic film and television series that both studios had in their vaults, including Rod Serling's Night Gallery (from Universal TV) and Paramount's Star Trek and classic Universal horror films such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and author Isaac Asimov were among those on the advisory board.
In 1997, Seagram, which bought MCA in 1995, purchased Viacom's interest in USA and Sci Fi, and sold the networks to Barry Diller in 1998 to form USA Networks, Inc. Diller later sold USA's non-shopping (film and TV) assets, including Sci-Fi, to Universal's then-parent Vivendi Universal in 2002. Vivendi's film, television, and cable TV assets were then merged with General Electric's NBC to form NBC Universal in 2004. A high definition version of the channel launched on October 3, 2007 on DIRECTV, on Comcast on April 15, 2008, and Dish Network on April 18, 2008.
Programming
Sci Fi's programming includes original television movies, miniseries, and series. In the past, the channel has also aired many canceled "cult classic" science fiction TV shows.
Briefly in the early 1990s, Sci Fi showed anime films, although they were often edited in order to fit the market pressures typically placed on basic cable. It was the first to show the Streamline Pictures English dubs of the films Robot Carnival, Lensman, and Akira, as well as airing Central Park Media's Dominion: Tank Police, Gall Force, and Project A-ko. Although most of Sci Fi's anime programming was composed of feature-length films, a few, such as Dominion: Tank Police, were original video animations (OVAs) cut together to fit into the feature timeslot. In May 2007, it was announced that anime would be once again returning to Sci Fi Channel, beginning on June 11 in what was termed the "Ani-Monday" programming block. The block features the English dubs of series licensed by Manga Entertainment. Sci Fi also began airing some anime on Tuesday nights during February 2008.
Miniseries
Sci-Fi original programming gained national prominence in 2003 with the airing of Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken, which won the Emmy Award that year for best miniseries.
Sci Fi Pictures original films
Developed by Chris Regina, Ray Cannella and Thomas Vitale, Sci Fi's original films are typically independently-made B movie-quality movies with total budgets of $1 to 2 million a piece. They usually premiere on Saturday nights. They are also one of the sponsors for the Coalition for Freedom of Information.
Non-science-fiction programming
In 2006, Sci Fi began showing some non-sci-fi programming. These have included:
Website
SciFi.com is the SCI FI Channel's website, launched in 1995 under the name "The Dominion" (which it dropped in 2000). It was one of the first large-scale, publicly available, well-advertised, and non-portal based Web sites. In addition to information on the channel's programming, it covers science fiction in general, primarily through its semi-autonomous Science Fiction Weekly webzine, edited by Scott Edelman, and SciFi Wire newswire.
The site has won a Webby Award and a Flash Forward Award. From 2000–2005, it published original science fiction short stories in a section called , edited by Ellen Datlow, who won a 2005 Hugo Award for her work there. The stories themselves won a World Fantasy Award; the first Theodore Sturgeon Award for online fiction (for Lucius Shepard's novella "Over Yonder"), and four of the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebula Awards, including the first for original online fiction (for Linda Nagata's novella "Goddesses").
SCIFIpedia is a commercial wiki special interest encyclopedia owned by the SCI FI Channel as part of its SCIFI.COM web site. Launched on April 22, 2006, SCIFIpedia's topics include anime, comics, science fiction, fantasy, horror, fandom, games and toys, UFOs, genre-related art and audio, and the paranormal.
Ratings
In 2008, SCI FI averaged a 1.0 Household rating; 242,000 Adults 18-34 (up 4% vs 2007); 616,000 Adults 18-49 (up 5% vs 2007); 695,000 Adults 25-54 (up 6% vs 2007) and 1,278,000 total viewers (up 7% vs 2007). SCI FI had two years of consecutive growth among females audiences, with a 12% increase among Women 25-54, a 14% jump in Women 18-49 and 6% more Women 18-34. SCI FI also ranked among the top ten among Men 25-54 (#6), Men 18-49 (#9) and Women 25-54 (#10). http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?date=12/17/08&id=20081217scifi01
Logos
Since the channel began, Sci Fi Channel's logos were made in ideas to look like Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun.
External links
- *, LA Times - Interview with Dave Howe
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