As the mother of a two year old who LOVES Sesame Street, I don't know how I've missed this announcement, but's it's true, Sesame Street will now be brought to you by the letters H, B, and O starting January 16, 2016.

Back in August of 2015 Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind the classic children's show, signed a deal with HBO to bring the next five seasons of Sesame Street to the premium cable channel and its streaming services.

According to USA Today;

The partnership means that Sesame Street will be able to produce almost twice as much new content in each season. The show will still be made available to PBS and its member stations, which has aired the program since 1969,  only now it will be free of charge for them after a nine-month window.

 

The reason for the move? The all mighty dollar. Kids still love Elmo and friends, but they aren't buying up their merchandise like they used to. According to Sesame Workshop CEO, Jeffrey D. Dunn;

 

The deal provides Sesame Workshop with the critical funding it needs to be able to continue production of Sesame Street and secure its nonprofit mission of helping kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder; it gives HBO exclusive pay cable and SVOD access to the nation’s most important and historic educational programming; and it allows Sesame Street to continue to air on PBS and reach all children, as it has for the past 45 years.”

 

This deal with HBO also allows Sesame Workshop to produce a Sesame Street Muppet spin-off series as well as develop a new educational series for children.

So, I guess we should all be happy the neighborhood is moving, else it may have no longer existed, which would have been a huge loss for future generations of kids!

Since we're on the subject of kids, better get your tickets now for the second annual Kidabaloo at Rock Valley College on Saturday, March 19 before this moves out of the neighborhood too! This year's jamboree will be even bigger and better, plus it includes an appearance from the Disney Channel's Trinitee Stokes from K.C. Undercover!

 

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