The long-running children’s educational TV show Sesame Street is heading to Netflix as part of a partnership with the American broadcaster PBS.
Netflix will stream Sesame Street worldwide, while Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) will continue to air the show in the United States through its app and television stations.
That means Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and co. will have its 50+ year history preserved by a “unique public-private partnership.” New episodes of the show will be just 11 minutes long, while 90 hours of legacy content is also heading to Netflix.
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“Additionally, episodes will now centre on one 11-minute story, allowing for even more character-driven humour and heart,” a press release revealed.
The show is produced by the Sesame Workshop non-profit, so the future of the show was by no means secure. The current streaming home Max (about to be HBO Max once again) had declined to renew a deal.
The partnership is important because the current home PBS is currently publicly funded with the US government among its backers.
The Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency, manned by the unelected billionaire backer Elon Musk trying to remove funding from organisations deemed not to follow the doctrine.
Earlier this month Trump signed an executive order demanding the US “end taxpayer subsidisation of biased media“
With $500 million of Congresssional funding split between organisations like PBS, NPR and other television and radio shows, the removal to the public purse could have doomed the Cookie Monster.
However, PBS still gets the majority of its funding from the public with individual donations, foundation grants and sponsorships making up the cash.
Opinion
Given the grave threat to PBS’ future from an extremist administration, a deal with a private entity like Netflix staves off a threat sees even the humble Bert & Ernie targeted.
