Sesame Workshop, a non-profit organization that produces Sesame Street, has signed a new distribution contract with Netflix, the New York Times (NYT) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 19th.
As a result, more than 300 million subscribers worldwide will be able to watch new episodes of “Sesame Street” and 90 hours of previous episodes.
Sesame Workshop has been producing content by signing a contract with Warner Bros. Discovery’s broadcast channel HBO since 2015, but Warner Bros. announced in December last year that it would not renew the contract, facing a crisis.
Even this year, the Donald Trump administration cut subsidies to public and non-profit organizations, adding to Sesame Workshop’s financial difficulties. In recent months, it has cut about 20% of its employees.
It is not known how much Netflix paid for the distribution deal.
Recently, Netflix has been focusing on strengthening its children’s content. This accounts for about 15 percent of all Netflix content.
Sesame Street is one of the oldest shows in U.S. television history, with more than 4,500 episodes since its first broadcast in 1969.
Sesame Workshop has been producing the program with the goal of educating children to grow healthy through interesting stories.
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
