New venue for Sci Fi (MGM)?

[SerenityS]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...-fiction-multi-channel-network-300105833.html

BALTIMORE and LOS ANGELES, June 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sinclair Television Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) ("Sinclair"), and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ("MGM"), today announced a partnership to jointly create, develop, distribute and air the first ever 24 hour/7 day per week science fiction multi-channel network which will feature over 1,500 hours of premium MGM content.

 

[Overmind One]

Syfy must be frowning right now. They had their chance to get back to their roots and they just refused to give in. Thankfully, MGM sees the gap in genre offerings in the channel lineups, and they are doing something about it.

I think the problem at Syfy is that they no longer know what actual science fiction is. Everything they make nowadays seems to go along the lines of NuBSG (cause they are stuck on that as being some kind of benchmark/Holy Grail). Soap writing set on a spaceship. Instead of writing the stories of drama, intrigue, betrayal and love trysts in a mythical town named Sudsy Bay, they just do it on a ship named USS Sudsy Bay. They have lost their way. Good riddance.

 

[SerenityS]

Oops, sorry. Just saw the thread Gatefan posted yesterday "Interesting..." so I suppose I should ask to have this one deleted or merged. Just let me know if you want me to delete (since Ovemind already made a comment). Thanks!

 

[YJ02]

is this for new content or just a place to show what they already have--old movies/series'?

 

[shavedape]

On the upside, competition should make SyFy work harder at bringing us genuine science fiction. At least in theory. It wouldn't surprise me if they stupidly continued on with business as usual though.

 

[Overmind One]

On the upside, competition should make SyFy work harder at bringing us genuine science fiction. At least in theory. It wouldn't surprise me if they stupidly continued on with business as usual though.

See, that is the problem. They think they are ALREADY doing that. Somebody over at Syfy has decided that NuBSG is good science fiction...the best, in fact. It is a benchmark over there. If you notice all the shows they have approved for broadcast, they all have elements of shows like NuBSG and Lost. They no longer know what "genuine science fiction" is. They think their soap-fi shows are the real thing.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Oops, sorry. Just saw the thread Gatefan posted yesterday "Interesting..." so I suppose I should ask to have this one deleted or merged. Just let me know if you want me to delete (since Ovemind already made a comment). Thanks!

Eh, no probs stranger, this has a more accurate description than mine. It would make more sense to merge that one into this one TBH.

 

[ecgordon]

On the upside, competition should make SyFy work harder at bringing us genuine science fiction. At least in theory. It wouldn't surprise me if they stupidly continued on with business as usual though.

But there already is a lot of competition. HBO, AMC, BBC-A, Starz, TNT, and even the broadcast networks over the past few years. What I don't understand is why a station owned and operated by a conglomerate as big as NBC-Universal cannot spend more money to make its shows stand out. I'm still holding out hope for The Expanse and Childhood's End, but those might be the last chances I'll give them.

 

[SerenityS]

Maybe not such a big thing after all? Here is a comment from the Gateworld article about this:

Take it easy, gents, before you get too wound-up.
To be very clear here, MGM/Sinclair are NOT launching a SyFy network competitor. The channel is a “digital multicast channel”, which is to say it’s going to be a sub-channel carried by Sinclair’s terrestial television stations. This is similar in concept to This TV and Me-TV, which are two other ventures that MGM is already involved in.
The point to take from this is that the purpose of this channel is to offer low-cost last-run programming for broadcasters to place on their subchannels. These channels attract few viewers, but the content is long since paid for, so it’s free money for MGM and Sinclair. But the important part to take away is that there won’t be any first-run programming on these channels, so no new MGM series will be airing on them. Not that you’d want to anyhow, these channels are broadcast in overcompressed 480i, so well below DVD quality.
Really this is just a deal for MGM to make a few more bucks on their back-catalog of sci-fi content. Stargate alone (by my calculations) is about 25% of the 1500 hours quoted, so it’s going to be airing a LOT of Stargate re-runs, for better or worse.
ViRGE | June 30 @ 11:40 pm

 

[Quetesh]

I miss Syfy shows like WH13 and Eureka, they were a good middle for them.

 

[Rac80]

Maybe not such a big thing after all? Here is a comment from the Gateworld article about this:

I don't mind this at all. The old scifi shows are good, entertaining, and fun- so much better than the bs syfyllis is putting out now. I enjoyed the old SciFi channel when it showed the old series- from Voyage to the bottom of the sea, to time tunnel, to the invaders, to the Original BSG, Planet of the Apes, etc... back when scifi was FUN not angsty!