• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, March 16, 2009

Did NBC Universal marketers devise the new moniker for the Sci Fi Channel? NBCU says it had the eureka, but that would appear to be a heckuva coincidence. Or more apropos for Sci Fi, a case of telepathic transmission.

NBCU announced Monday that the Sci Fi Channel would be taking on the "Syfy" brand in July. The aim: to move away from any niche identification the channel harbors with the science-fiction genre.

The New York Times reported the "Syfy" name was "developed by an internal team at Sci Fi along with Landor Associates, a corporate and brand identity consultancy." And an NBCU representative wrote in an email that the brand was conceived "completely independently."

But SyFyPortal.com, a Web site covering science-fiction TV and entertainment, has carried the "SyFy" brand for more than a decade. And last month, NBCU purchased rights to it from the site's operator and founder, Michael Hinman.

Frustrated, Hinman says claims from NBCU that its executives conceived the brand name individually are spurious. "There's no way that they can even sell that to anybody--that they came up with (it) all on their own," he says. "They know who we are."

Hinman said he contacted the New York Times reporter who wrote the story about the coming "Syfy" rebranding. And the reporter replied with some exasperation that NBCU failed to inform him that a SyFy Portal had been in existence.

Contacted Monday, the reporter did not have time to comment due to an imminent deadline.

(There is a slight deviation: NBCU is going with a lower case "f"--as in "Syfy"--while the Web site had used "SyFy.")

In January, Hinman was approached sub rosa by a company seemingly mysterious enough to merit its own series on the Sci Fi Channel: New Fizz Corp. (A person picking up the phone there Monday said, "I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number"--then hung up.)

New Fizz told Hinman it was interested in acquiring rights to the "SyFy" brand, as well as the SyFyPortal.com URL--but wouldn't say why.

Nonetheless, Hinman said the financial proposals were "so substantial, we knew it wasn't someone looking to start up their own science-fiction news site."

Back-and-forth conversations ensued, and in late February a deal was finalized between Hinman's company and an intellectual property attorney affiliated with New Fizz, who had worked on behalf of NBCU before.

Hinman, a journalist, would not identify the purchase price paid by NBCU.

In a separate deal, NBCU was able to gain control of the Syfy.com URL. Hinman had tried to acquire it himself, but the owner declined to sell.

In regard to the deals, the NBCU representative wrote: "Once the decision was made to change the name, we pursued various strategic paths, including acquiring certain domain names." (A call to WPP Group's Landor was not immediately returned.)

SyFyPortal.com has now morphed into AirlockAlpha.com. Until May, the site has rights to redirect users typing in its old URL to its new site.

And visitors are greeted with the message: "Don't worry, you're in the right place. We just had to evacuate SyFy Portal when it destabilized due to some... tachyon... quantum... spacial... something or other."

Perhaps sensing a publicity opportunity, Hinman sent an email Monday noting that NBCU purchased the "SyFy" brand from him. "I want to make sure people understand the origin of this ... but at the same time ... (we want) better positioning and marketing for our new name," he said.

The site receives 25,000 unique visitors a day, he said.

An irony: the editors at the former SyFyPortal.com will be offering ample commentary on NBCU's "Syfy" when it launches this summer.