HBO buys Sesame Street

TerzaRima said:

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Subscribe

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I would have gone with the "Brought to you by the letter F" joke.

I suppose Bert and Ernie will drop all subtlety now.

Kaiser-Kun said:

I suppose Bert and Ernie will drop all subtlety now.

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That, or a cameo in Game of Thrones...

It's still supposed to be played on Public Television as it is now. So I doubt the content will change much.

RichardGarfinkle said:

Too late
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhWUFXvaZjo

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That's awesome...


Huzzaah!!

Gilroy Cullen said:

It's still supposed to be played on Public Television as it is now. So I doubt the content will change much.

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Production quality will probably be better. And there won't be any capital shortfalls. Apparently, HBO will just run the episodes--and there will now be more episodes every year--first, then they'll run on PBS. All the past episodes will still be available to run, too.

Looks like a big win-win to me. I don't get the complaining on this.

I would think this would be awful for ratings. I mean, how many parents would REALLY subscribe to HBO for the sake of sesame street? My only guess is that they are hoping children will go oscar the grouch on their parents if they don't.

On the next episode of Real Sex.

HBO has some excellent original programming for young children. They're just increasing the offerings in that regard. Will it cause people to subscribe just for Sesame Street? Probably not. But it's a sum total thing. I'm sure HBO will increase their number of subscribers or at least not lose some they might have lost thanks to more offerings. Again, Sesame Street is just one of many things, now.

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TerzaRima said:

Really, not at all?

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Nope.

TerzaRima said:

Really, not at all?

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Me either, not a bit. HBO basically said, "Let's pour a ton of money into the quality programming that is Sesame Street and make sure it keeps airing on PBS. We just get to show the newest episodes on our channel first." That seems more than fair to me.

If they were yanking it from PBS altogether, that would be a different story, but they're not.

Of course, I'm someone who waits for shows to hit Netflix before I watch them. Maybe watching new episodes of a show the moment they're released matters more to other people than I'd realized? I mean, it's Sesame Street. It's not as if it has ongoing narratives and cliffhangers (at least, it didn't last time I watched it, which was admittedly many years ago).

Gilroy Cullen said:

It's still supposed to be played on Public Television as it is now. So I doubt the content will change much.

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Yeah, and it should help with funding as well.

CrastersBabies said:

Yeah, and it should help with funding as well.

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Yes, especially since they're putting Tony Soprono's old crew in charge of it.

robeiae said:

. .
Looks like a big win-win to me. I don't get the complaining on this.

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TerzaRima said:

Really, not at all?

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Tazlima said:

Me either, not a bit. HBO basically said, "Let's pour a ton of money into the quality programming that is Sesame Street and make sure it keeps airing on PBS. We just get to show the newest episodes on our channel first." That seems more than fair to me.

If they were yanking it from PBS altogether, that would be a different story, but they're not.

Of course, I'm someone who waits for shows to hit Netflix before I watch them. . .

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Just more class warfare, is all. The "haves" lead charmed lives.

Magdalen said:

Just more class warfare, is all. The "haves" lead charmed lives.

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I won't disagree that the "haves" lead charmed lives, but I'm not sure where this particular issue fits into class warfare.

HBO didn't start this ball rolling. Sesame Street was in dire financial straits and went out looking for a buyer. HBO just took them up on the offer. If I have to choose between "Sesame Street, brought to you by HBO" or "Sesame Street canceled due to lack of funding," I'm all for the former. It seems like for once the "haves" have done something decent with their gobs of money.

Yes, I'm sure they only helped Sesame Street in order to help themselves, but I see nothing wrong with that. The end result is the same, and if they benefit from doing something decent, then maybe they'll be inclined to do more decent things in the future.

Of course, by "haves" I'm thinking you mean HBO. If you mean "people with cable" vs. "people without cable," I don't know what to tell you.

Good. Now we can have muppet nudity and swearing.

caw

Vocabulary brought to you by the number 4.

Sounds educational and entertaining to me!

Magdalen said:

Just more class warfare, is all. The "haves" lead charmed lives.

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I don't understand. Who are the "haves" in this situation? Who are the "have-nots" in this situation?

Rizzi said:

I don't understand. Who are the "haves" in this situation? Who are the "have-nots" in this situation?

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I suspect the "haves" are the people who can afford an HBO subscription while the "have-nots" are the people whose only quality programming comes from public television.

Count me in the group who would rather see the show appear on HBO before PBS than be cut altogether. I'm still sad that our country doesn't value high-quality public programming enough to fund it through taxes, though. My local PBS station is one of two channels I watch.

"The letter W is coming..."

"Big Bird always pays his debts"

Disney bought the Muppets franchise, and that was a debacle. I say this, as a Disney sub-subcontractor for four years. I'm glad HBO stepped in.

Nine months' lag time seems a little excessive, doesn't it? What does this accomplish that a few weeks wouldn't?