Sesame Street is Coming to HBO

Time Warner’s HBO is going for the children’s market in a big way, forming a partnership with Sesame Workshop, makers of Sesame Street.

“Sesame Street” has been on the air as a 60-minute show since 1969. It will continue to air on PBS, although new episodes will be exclusive to HBO for the first nine months.

Sesame Workshop will also start working on a new Muppet spin-off of its main Sesame Street series, in addition to developing a brand-new (and unnamed) children’s educational series.

“Our new partnership with HBO represents a true winning public-private partnership model”, said Sesame Workshop CEO Jeffrey Dunn.

After nearly fifty years of being broadcast on public television, iconic children’s television program Sesame Street will be moving to premium cable network HBO. But since the current season of “Sesame Street” is airing until then, there will be no lapse for PBS viewers.

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik talks with Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson about the deal and what it means for PBS, HBO and everyone’s favorite street. Historically, less than 10 percent of the funding for Sesame Street episodes came from PBS – with the rest financed through licensing revenue, such as DVD sales.

HBO already has some family programming, but building up its catalog, especially with a high-profile show such as “Sesame Street”, is essential to broadening the appeal of HBO Now, which costs about twice as much as Netflix.

About Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street which reaches 156 million children across more than 150 countries.

PBS’s statement also noted that its children’s lineup is comprised of “more than a dozen series”.

PBS, the long-time home of the children’s program, will continue to air the show as well. But the the real motivation says the WSJ is to have content available for its online services HBO Go and HBO Now.

Financial details of the deal weren’t released, but Sesame Street co-founder Joan Ganz Cooney said in the statement that she “couldn’t think of a better partner” for the show. Wednesday morning, Sesame Workshop also announced it’s cutting the length of Sesame Street episodes from an hour to a half-hour.