Sesame Workshop and HBO announced a new partnership today that will bring Sesame Street to HBO, HBO Go, HBO on Demand and HBO NOW. The deal runs through the next five seasons of Sesame Street. The press release notes that this will allow Sesame Street to produce “almost twice as much new content as previous seasons.” PBS will continue to air Sesame Street, with the new episodes available there nine months after they debut on HBO. Episodes of Sesame Street will also continue to be made available as part of the PBS KIDS service on PBS member stations.
“Our new partnership with HBO represents a true winning public-private partnership model,” said Sesame Workshop CEO Jeffrey D. Dunn, in a statement. “It provides Sesame Workshop with the critical funding it needs to be able to continue production of Sesame Street and secure its nonprofit mission of helping kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder; it gives HBO exclusive pay cable and SVOD access to the nation’s most important and historic educational programming; and it allows Sesame Street to continue to air on PBS and reach all children, as it has for the past 45 years.”
HBO has also licensed over 150 previously-produced episodes of Sesame Street, with new episodes set to air as early as later this fall. In addition, Sesame Workshop “will produce a Sesame Street Muppet spinoff series.”
“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 HBO Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo, in a statement. “Home Box Office is committed to bringing the most groundbreaking and creative shows to its audience. Sesame Street is the most important preschool education program in the history of television. We are delighted to be a home for this extraordinary show, helping Sesame Street expand and build its franchise.”
The deal also includes HBO licensing 50 past episodes of two more series for children from Sesame Workshop, Pinky Dinky Doo and The Electric Company.
