Elmo, Big Bird and the rest of the Sesame Street gang are moving into the Netflix neighborhood.
The streaming service will debut the beloved preschool program’s 56th season, along with 90 hours of older episodes, later this year, the Los Gatos, Calif., entertainment company said Monday.
The move comes months after HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, decided not to continue its partnership with the nonprofit Sesame Workshop after a decade as part of a cost-cutting move.
One thing remains: “Sesame Street” also will continue to air on PBS stations in the U.S. and will be available across the public broadcaster’s digital platforms. The public broadcaster has been the broadcast partner since the puppets were pups back in 1969.
Through its deal with Sesame Workshop, Netflix will have exclusive worldwide premiere rights, and episodes will be available simultaneously on PBS stations. Licensing terms were not disclosed.
Netflix said the new season, which will be released in three batches, will include some format changes and the return of popular segments such as “Elmo’s World” and “Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck.” Episodes will now be built around a 11-minute story, tailored to the shorter attention spans of younger viewers.
The deal was a natural for Netflix, which has become the go-to streaming service with programming to serve nearly every audience.
The company said kids and family programming represents 15% of Netflix’s total viewing.
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