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Netflix is picking up Sesame Street and doing something HBO should've done all along

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How you'll get to Sesame Street

Netflix and Sesame Street
(Image credit: Netflix)

Sesame Street has a new address. When the iconic children's television program kicks off its 56th season later this year, it will be on Netflix, but, perhaps more importantly, it will also be on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the US.

The pair announced the exclusive deal with a brief and adorable video featuring Cookie Monster, who discovers and then eats the Netflix "N".

A decade ago, when HBO (yes, it was just called "HBO" back then) announced its historic deal with Sesame Street to bring the series to its premium cable programming, it also shifted the show's original home to second-tier status. All first-run episodes appeared first on HBO and then, nine months later, the same episodes would air on the freely available PBS.

Netflix's deal, however, fundamentally changes that equation. New season 56 episodes featuring Grover, Big Bird, Elmo, and the rest of the characters will air on Netflix and PBS at the same time.

Essentially, this is two levels of good news for the beloved show: One, Sesame Street, whose future was no longer certain, has a popular and well-funded new home; and two, all youngsters and homes engaged in the Sesame Street story, regardless of their access or financial status, will have full access to the season's show.

G is for Good News

Neither Netflix nor Sesame Street is revealing the terms of the deal, but without Netflix's support, it was unclear if Sesame Street would survive.

When I spoke to Sesame Street Execs a decade ago as they were inking the HBO deal, they revealed to me that viewers on PBS accounted for a small percentage of their funding.

"What people don’t understand is that PBS only funds less than 10% of production costs of show. The show was funded for many years by licensing income," said Jeff Dunn in 2015, who is now Executive Chairman at Sesame Workshop.

The key to people buying content and products revolving around the Sesame Street franchise and funding the non-profit Sesame Street Workshop, is a bigger audience devoted to its characters and themes. Netflix, which has roughly 310 million subscribers compared to Max's estimated 110 million, should help in that regard.

Netflix and Sesame Street

(Image credit: Netflix)

Big changes

The season 56 Sesame Street Netflix subscribers (and those watching on PBS) will encounter later this year will be quite different from previous editions.

  • Characters will be talking directly to viewers.
  • Episodes will take viewers inside the apartment building where the characters live
  • Elmo's World will return, and Cookie Monster will get a cookie cart
  • Viewers will find more on-screen animations
  • Longer story segments

Netflix has also committed to developing games for Sesame Street and Sesame Street Mecha Builders.

The streamer is planning to release Sesame Street Season 56's 35 episodes in three batches on Netflix. It will also add some 90 hours of classic episodes to the platform. As for how many episodes that represents, we'll leave that to The Count to figure out.

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Lance Ulanoff
Lance Ulanoff
Editor At Large

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC. 

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