Channel Profile: Syfy

PREMIUM: Thomas P. Vitale, executive VP of programming and original movies at Syfy, discusses his approach to commissioning and acquiring TV movies and series at the popular NBC Universal-owned cable network.

Dedicated to science fiction, fantasy and supernatural fare, Syfy is “not a niche network,” asserts Vitale. “We are a top-five network in the key demographic categories, a mainstream network competing head-on with the other big networks. On many nights we have the top cable program on any network."

On the original series front, Syfy has commissioned a two-hour pilot for another Battlestar Galactica prequel, Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (just a few days before pulling the plug on Caprica). Elsewhere on the original-series front, the network has renewed Warehouse 13 for season three and Haven for season two, with several other scripted projects in development.

Original movies are a key part of the mix—Vitale says the network co-produces 24 original TV movies a year and acquires dozens of others. “Most of the movies are done through independents,” Vitale says, “the kinds of companies that make the kind of gritty independent movie that you just can’t find anywhere else. There’s no place for these movies anymore, except on television. We work with these little companies; we make very gritty genre movies.”

He points out, too, that the genres of movies that Syfy commissions and acquires cover a wide range. “Everyone thinks we’re just traditional science fiction—space and aliens,” Vitale says. “But science fiction also has alternative history; it has time travel, future speculative fiction, there’s so much. Horror and supernatural are part of Syfy. High fantasy is part of Syfy. We even do investigative documentaries. We went to Roswell [New Mexico], for example, where, purportedly, the most famous spaceship crash ever happened.”

Syfy co-produces so many movies because of what Vitale terms a “scarcity in terms of quality” in the genres it prefers. “There just weren’t enough really good movies out there,” he says. “We do find some gems in the independent marketplace. It’s more a matter of making sure we have enough volume. That’s what our originals do. We want those two original high-profile movies a month. There’s a lot of room on the network for movies.”

Vitale says Syfy “dreams up” most of its original movies internally at brainstorming sessions of 20 or so people, fueled by popcorn and other inspirational treats. “At one of those sessions,” Vitale recalls, “a woman named Nicole Sands in Syfy’s marketing department threw out the word ‘sharktopus’ and everybody laughed, and we had such a good time with the word, we thought, ‘Well, Nicole, we’re going to make a movie called Sharktopus.’ Once we had it as an idea, we went to Roger Corman. We worked with Roger on choosing a writer and director and talked about what the movie should be about.”

The movie, starring Eric Roberts, aired in September. “From the moment we have an idea for a movie to the movie hitting the air is probably about 14 months or so,” Vitale says. “Some movies are ripped from the headlines. We did a movie about the West Nile Virus called Mansquito. Sometimes the movies come from the producers pitching us an idea. We can go through those ideas very quickly. We know on a gut level pretty quickly what will get a rating and what won’t. We’d rather have log lines than fully formed scripts, concepts that we can put Syfy’s unique stamp on as we develop. Sometimes they’re more campy, like Sharktopus, and sometimes they’re more serious, like House of Bones [starring Corin Nemec], a very scary movie that aired earlier this year.”

The movies are usually budgeted at around $2 million, with Syfy and its co-production partner splitting the cost. Syfy gets U.S. television rights and the production company gets international and DVD rights.