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

Can Google's Android TV Take on an Updated Apple TV?

Perhaps aware of Chromecast's limitations, Google unveiled Google TV's successor, Android TV, at its I/O conference last year. Compared to Google TV, Android TV is far less complex, with a standard in...

PCCW Media launches Viu OTT video service

Global research group TDG* estimated that global advertising revenue from OTT TV is expected to grow nearly four-fold between 2015 and 2020. By 2020, OTT TV ad revenue will be approximately US$40 bill...

‘Subscription Fatigue’ Not Slowing OTT Proliferation After All: Research Firm

The popular “subscription fatigue” narrative is that consumers have topped out on the number of over-the-top services they’re willing to pay for and are now in pruning mode. But Parks Associates—wh...

Comcast Pursues Bigger Piece Of Smart Home Market

“First and foremost, we have over the past year and a half focused heavily on disrupting the home security market,” Dan Herscovici, senior vice president and general manager of Xfinity Home, said in a...