Sesame Street seeking new home for next season as Warner Bros Discovery deal lapses
Sesame Street is marking its 55th season
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has not renewed its output deal with Sesame Street producer Sesame Workshop, leaving fresh episodes of the iconic series in need of new home.
WBD-owned HBO and Max will continue to license episodes from the Sesame Street library until at least 2027, however it will no longer invest in new episodes. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.
The latest season of Sesame Street, its 55th, will start streaming on Max from January, while Sesame Workshop seeks a buyer for future seasons.
US premium cablenet HBO secured exclusive first-run rights to the show in 2015 following a deal with non-profit educational organisation Sesame Workshop.
The deal allowed for Sesame Street to become available for free on PBS, home to Sesame Street for the previous 45 years, after less than a year.
The two renewed and expanded their agreement in 2019 for five new seasons, plus spin-offs, ahead of the launch of HBO Max (now Max) in the US.
It comes as Max plans to commission less preschool programming to focus on content for adults and older kids with projects including an upcoming Harry Potter series.
The availability of new episodes of Sesame Street, one of the world’s most iconic children’s shows, could be a major coup for a streamer keen to forge stronger ties with a family audience.
Apple TV+ is already home to Peanuts in the US and could be open to another landmark kids series, while Netflix has previously made ambitious moves in the kids and family space, acquiring the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021.
However, subscription streamers and broadcasters alike are struggling to reach young audiences who have shifted wholesale to YouTube, where preschool brands such as Cocomelon have a tight grip on viewers.
Sesame Workshop may decide to go direct-to-audience itself on YouTube, however its future distribution plans for the brand remain unknown.
“We are excited to extend our 10-year partnership with Warner Bros Discovery, keeping Sesame Street’s iconic library available on Max through 2027,” a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop said in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months, ensuring that Sesame Street reaches as many children as possible for generations to come.”
A spokesperson for Max said: “It has been a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street on the iconic children’s series, and we are thrilled to be able to keep some of the library series on Max in the US.
“As we’ve launched Max though and based on consumer usage and feedback, we’ve had to prioritise our focus on stories for adults and families, and so new episodes from Sesame Street, at this time, are not as core to our strategy.”
