Elmo and the gang have just signed to HBO, and Sesame Street is paved with the promise of “almost twice as much new content”.
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Sesame Workshop is partnering with HBO to move beloved children’s series Sesame Street to premium cable TV.
Once aired on HBO, episodes will be made available nine months later to the PBS public television network – the show’s home since its inception – free of charge.
In addition, HBO has licensed several seasons’ worth of Sesame Street, potentially for broadcast, as well as past episodes of children’s educational show The Electric Company and the animated seriesPinky Dinky Doo.
“We are absolutely thrilled to help secure the future of “Sesame Street” and Sesame Workshop’s mission for the nation’s kids and families”, said Richard Plepler, the chairman and chief executive officer of HBO, also in a statement.
While the premium cable network’s most popular programming has been adult-themed dramas, such as “The Sopranos” and “Game of Thrones”, it has produced and aired other children’s shows over the years, including Jim Henson’s “Fraggle Rock”.
Children are said to be increasingly watching shows via streaming services instead of traditional television.
Sesame Workshop CEO Jeffrey D. Dunn said the deal “represents a true, winning public-private partnership model”. She added that PBS remains “committed to bringing more impactful programming to more children, parents and caregivers”. As with the main series, these will be made available on PBS following HBO’s exclusive window.
The deal is a marriage of necessity for the nonprofit organization that produces the 45-year-old program, long considered the gold standard in children’s educational television. Sesame Street will also continue its run on PBS this fall, with the season featuring a selection of episodes from the past several seasons edited in new ways.
Sesame Street meets The Wire?
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“The reason Sesame Workshop was able to keep producing Sesame Street at very high cost is because they had extraordinary DVD and merchandising revenue, and that has started to decline”, explains Jim Steyer, CEO of the nonprofit Common Sense Media. They watch these episodes over and over again. While PBS was able to fund “Sesame Street” easily decades ago, problems have arisen in the age of On-Demand and tablet viewing.
