Imagine Branding

Today at Broadcasting & Cable: Editorial: Brand Recognition

"For a network that has built great buzz around wonderful, identity enhancing programming like the critically adored Battlestar Galactica and its strong follow-up Caprica, this is very simply a head-scratcher from a branding perspective.

By no means of the imagination does Smackdown fit the SyFy brand, no matter how clever the spin. The Smackdown card has been played by its last couple of homes in an attempt to grab the one thing it delivers every week: eyeballs. But The CW learned that was a rented audience, especially for its brand."

Ouch. I don't follow the empire that Vince built, but evidently Smackdown itself is a strategic effort at distinctive branding. SyFy is the third network where Smackdown will try anew to rise above the din of television wrasslin.

Oh yeah, Caprica will be bumped to Tuesdays this fall to make room for SyFy's acquisition of Smackdown. What wasn't apparent, to me, upon hearing this announcement is that Smackdown needed the promise of a fresh start in SyFy more than SyFy needed to build on its existing wrasslin programming. It's less of a bet the farm buy from CW than you'd expect. And it's not a case of viewers not being able to find Caprica in its new timeslot, duh, more like the cachet of SyFy gets ever more dubious as it bids further and farther afield from its historical brand.

Kinda reminds you of UPN some years back all over again.

-ThP