For anyone who’s taken a trip down Sesame Street, Thursday was both a sad day and a happy one.  Related: Sesame Street is moving to HBO for the next five seasons  After years of struggling to stay on PBS amid a lack of profitable revenues, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind the Emmy-winning program, announced it had struck a deal with HBO to move the show over to the premium cable network. PBS was left with a consolation prize: new episodes will continue to air on the channel, but only following a nine-month window.  The surprising move was met like a gut punch to many adults who grew up watching the beloved children’s show on the public television provider, and felt dismayed that the show will soon have a paywall, thereby limiting its audience to people who can afford HBO’s monthly dues.  The defeated reaction of many caused comedian Brian Gaar’s tweet about the privatization of the show to go viral, immediately following the announcement.  Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik followed suit, saying on Twitter that the move felt wrong.  On Friday morning, Poniewozik elaborated on his tweet with a pointed essay on “why the Sesame Street deal hurts parents more than kids”.  “[A]s Sesame Street has taught for so long, feelings matter too,” he wrote. “And however well the decision works practically, in principle it feels gross.”  He concedes that Sesame Workshop are doing the right thing “by finding a way to keep a valuable institution vital”, but said the announcement couldn’t have been more “symbolically freighted”.  It’s easy to see his point. Sesame Street was a show created for children in the 1960s to be consumed by everyone, regardless of social standing. The new pact with HBO changes that: only parents willing to pay the costs will be able to show their children the latest episodes.  As Washington Post blogger Alyssa Rosenberg said: “Friendly neighbors may still meet on Sesame Street. Now, they’ll just be doing it nine months apart.”  Related: 'You know nothing, Jon Elmo': the internet reacts to Sesame Street on HBO  Which raises the question: is that gap really worth fretting over?  Jeffrey D Dunn, Sesame Workshop’s CEO, says the new partnership represents a “true winning public-private partnership model” to provide “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”.  Indeed, the deal will allow Sesame Workshop to produce almost twice as many episodes as previous seasons (35 a year, up from the 18 it produces now), on top of plans to develop a spin-off series, as well as a brand-new original series. In turn, PBS now has more money free for other programming.  The partnership is a clear win-win for both HBO and Sesame Workshop.  HBO is known for skewing to a mature demographic, with explicit shows like Game of Thrones and Sex and the City. With the launch of HBO Now, the cable network recently entered the streaming world. The new platform now puts HBO in competition with streaming mainstays like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video – two services that make a huge profit by catering a lot of content to young audiences. Sesame Street will make HBO Now a streaming destination for families. Also working in HBO’s favor: both Amazon and Netflix will no longer be able to air Sesame Street episodes because of the deal.  For Sesame Workshop, the partnership will keep the show alive, a matter of paramount importance. Sesame Street has struggled in recent years to acquire the funding it needs to stay on the air, because of the rapid rise of streaming and on-demand viewing and a steep decline in licensing income. To now, the show was largely funded through licensing revenue, such as DVD sales. According to the New York Times, PBS was only responsible for 10% of its budget. Sesame Street’s co-founder Joan Ganz Cooney put it bluntly, saying Sesame Workshop had to “adapt to the times” in order to survive.  For those disillusioned by news, there is a silver lining: HBO has only signed on for the next five seasons of Sesame Street.  As Rosenberg writes for the Washington Post: “HBO’s contract with Sesame Street simultaneously demonstrates, once again, that the show is a valuable commodity, and makes one of the best, most under-looked arguments for public arts funding.”  Here’s hoping the federal government steps back up to the plate.
HBO is the new home for Sesame Street from this fall – but why did the show make the move from PBS, and what does it mean for children and their parents?