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

Viacom To Target Ads On Roku Streaming Boxes

“With this partnership, we can deliver more relevant messages to Roku consumers for products and services that interest them,”said Kern Schireson, Viacom’s executive vice president of data strategy an...

One in three smart home owners control them through a network, like Alexa

More people are buying smart home devices, and connecting them through platforms or systems like smart speakers and hubs. So says a new report from Parks Associates which found that 35 percent of smar...

More than 10 million smart home devices will be sold in the U.S. by 2021

Most people buy smart blinds, lights and thermostats physical stores today, looking for a bit of handholding with their smart home purchase. But that could change over time as consumers expectations g...

SVODs Are Hot, But Subscribers Are Still Fickle

A new study from Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates has found that 20% of US broadband households (approximately 90 million homes) cancelled at least one OTT or SVOD subscription in 2015....