Time Warner's HBO to Debut 'Sesame Street'; Inks New Deal
In an effort to expand in the children’s television programming sphere, Time Warner Inc.’s TWX premium cable and satellite television network, Home Box Office or HBO, entered into a five-year agreement with Sesame Workshop, the makers of Sesame Street, to air new episodes of the show. A kids’ educational show, Sesame Street has been airing on national public television provider, PBS, since 45 years.
HBO, which is known for dramas and cynical comedies such as The Sopranos, True Detectives, Girls, Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley, will air Sesame Street on the premium cable channel as well as on its streaming services in fall 2015. This marks the entry of characters such as Cookie Monster, Elmo and Big Bird into HBO, where the new episodes of Sesame Street will be aired exclusively for nine months before their debut on PBS.
This deal will help Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization, to secure the required funding to keep the show, Sesame Street, running. The collaboration will also enable Sesame Workshop to increase the number of episodes of Sesame Street from 18 to 35, produce the Muppets spin-off series as well as an educational series for children. HBO will also gain licensing rights to old episodes of The Electric Company, Pinky Dinky Doo and Sesame Street.
Sesame Workshop had been grappling for funds as the contribution from PBS was not sufficient to cover production costs, and the dwindling DVD sales as well as licensing revenue could not act as a savior either. The agreement with HBO will definitely breathe new life into Sesame Workshop, as children’s programming will not only be available on traditional TV channels, but also on online platforms, HBO Go and HBO Now.
With high speed internet and more handheld devices, children are now inclined toward watching shows online rather than sitting in front of the TV. We believe that the debut of Sesame Street will provide HBO with a competitive platform against Netflix Inx. NFLX, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and Viacom, Inc. VIAB, which have been into children's programming for quite some time now.
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