Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

A Muppet always pays his debts – Sesame Street finds new home behind paywall

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, announced a programming deal that will send Sesame Street from its longtime publicly-subsidized home on PBS to the corporate Time Warner-owned home of Westeros on HBO. According to a press release from Sesame Workshop, the deal includes:

  • a five-year order of 35 episodes per season (nearly twice its current 18 episodes per season);
  • 150 library episodes;
  • a muppet-based spinoff series;
  • an additional educational series;
  • library episodes from Sesame Workshop-produced shows Pinky Dinky Doo; and,
  • 2009 reboot of the 1970s educational series The Electric Company.

New episodes of Sesame Street will begin airing on HBO as early as this fall.

Exact financial details of the agreement were not immediately released. On the surface, this looked like a surprise move. After all, aside from movies, HBO is known primarily for its adult-themed programs like Game of Thrones, The Wire, Girls, and True Detective because FCC governance is less strict on premium television. However, the move benefits both Sesame Workshop and HBO.

From the article "A Muppet always pays his debts – Sesame Street finds new home behind paywall" by Glenn Hower.

Previously In The News

Parks: Antenna-Only TV Households Are 15% of Broadband Households

Parks also found a coincident decrease in pay-TV subscriptions and an increase in Internet-only video subscriptions in antenna-only households. “Pay-TV subscriptions have dropped each year since 20...

Parks Finds Smartwatch Adoption in 14% of U.S. Broadband Households

Smartwatches are increasingly popular while tablets may have peaked, according to research from Parks Associates. The “360 View: Mobility & The App Economy” report found that smartwatch adoption reach...

It’s Playball for MLB and Facebook

A Bloomberg story on the agreement said that insiders put the price for the package at between $30 million and $35 million. It said that Facebook is broadening its sports lineup. Last year, it agreed...

Parks: Smart Home Devices Driving Higher Demand for Tech Support, But Computer Problems are in Steady Decline

Consumer computer problems, as well as problems with entertainment devices are declining steadily year-over-year, dropping by more than 50% since 2014, according to a new report from Parks Associates....