Sesame Street shows now accessible on Amazon and Netflix will soon go away under this new agreement.
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Episodes of Sesame Street will now be presented by the letters H, B and O. About two-thirds of children now watch “Sesame Street” on demand and do not tune in to PBS to watch the show.
“Popular American television series “ Sesame Street” will be aired exclusively on the premium cable network HBO starting in the fall in the U.S. Non-profit group Sesame Workshop has signed a deal of five years with HBO on Thursday. “We are delighted to be a home for this extraordinary show, helping Sesame Street expand and build its franchise”. Much of it was the result of sea changes in viewership and, especially, how Sesame Street’s youthful audience consumed the show.
Older episodes will continue to run on public television, but new episodes will show first on HBO for nine months before making their way to the public airways, according to NBC News.
Is it unfortunate that we’ve come to this – that a cash-flush TV empire has to step up to keep the lights on at television’s longest-running educational program, a triumphantly impactful national treasure that should be, by all metrics including financial, a fabulous success? Its flagship show, Sesame Street, had the mission of teaching the basics of the alphabet and numbers to children ages 3 to 5.
The deal allows Sesame Workshop to produce nearly double the content as in previous seasons and provide the show free to PBS and member stations after a 9-month window.
“Poor kids getting their Sesame Street episodes secondhand is actually educational: it teaches them how the world works”.
The news comes a day after the public media publication Current announced PBS’s decision to distribute only a half-hour version of the show this fall, dropping the regular hour long format.
“We’re always looking for original programming that stands for excellence”, Plepler said.
Episodes will become available to PBS stations and web sites nine months after they’re on HBO.
As for HBO, the partnership gives the network a pretty substantial piece of children’s programming that could be a great way to push tentative families toward an HBO subscription.
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Davis believes the PTC’s argument is specious because of the evergreen nature of children’s programming.
