I know it's juvenile, but I've been pronouncing it "Siffy" since they made the change. Then again, they really don't seem to be a sci-fi channel anymore (wrestling, paranormal), so I guess it makes more sense.

Still, they occasionally have good programming still. I was pleasantly surprised to see Children of Men was on last weekend when I flipped by it. (Of course, I flipped back for that)

That may be for Google optimizations. Sci-fi is generic, Syfy is specific.

Likely more for trademark and brand protection than Google (although it doesn't hurt there either).