There is controversy in the air, unrest on the street. Sesame Street.
the long running children's TV programme that has been a staple of American TV in particular for the past 40 years has moved to HBO. that means you now have to pay a subscription to watch rather than its previous home on free to air channels.
In the battle to attract new subscribers and industry accolades, streaming services like Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and Amazon have all been investing heavily in big budget adult dramas full of sex and violence. But equally important to winning over millennials, many of whom are now entering their late 20s and early 30s, is having children's programming that can satisfy the next generation of consumers. That makes seminal programming like Sesame Street, the iconic series from PBS, a hotly contested item. It has appeared on both Netflix and Hulu, but is now breaking new ground by working directly with HBO to create a new season, one that will be temporarily exclusive to HBO in exchange for additional funding.
Jessica Goldstein at THINKPROGRESS website wrote:
It’s always been an expensive address. But for a while, the funding was there: From the federal government, a few philanthropists, viewer donations to PBS, and, most of all, Sesame Street stuff. Books and videos, toothbrushes and pajamas, balloons and birthday cards, stuffed Oscar the Grouches and Grover slippers as fuzzy as Grover. Such ravenous consumption by the preschool set of all things Sesame kept the lights on at the most beloved brownstone in America.
But the kids aren’t buying Tickle Me Elmos like they used to. They don’t want DVDs anymore. They don’t even know what VHS tapes are. The kids have tablets, which means the kids have control. The kids decide what to watch, and what the kids do not have is any sense of nostalgia or institutional memory. The kids do not care how much you care about Cookie Monster.
The controversy has not stopped at moving one of the most famous educational shows out of the reach of its original intention of reaching the poor sections of American society but that the move to subscription [and thus wealthier audience] has coincided with a revamp of the street, a yuppification as the old locations are upgraded. The bins are now re-cycling bins, the street has wi-fi, the apartments have been remodeled.