Production of an episode of “Sesame Street” at the Kaufman Studios in the Astoria neighborhood of Wueens on Oct. 12, 2018. “Sesame Street,” the 56-year-old institution of children’s television, has signed a new distribution deal with Netflix, as well as a separate deal with PBS, the show announced on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Jonah Markowitz/The New York Times)
- “Sesame Street” signs new deals with Netflix and PBS, expanding reach amid financial strain after HBO contract expiration.
- Netflix to stream new “Sesame Street” episodes; PBS regains same-day access for first time in a decade.
- Sesame Workshop faces funding challenges despite broader audience access; CEO calls new distribution deal worth celebrating but financially limited.
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After many difficult months, “Sesame Street” has a moment to celebrate.
“Sesame Street,” the 56-year-old institution of children’s television, has signed a new distribution deal with Netflix, as well as a separate deal with PBS, the show announced Monday.
That means new episodes of “Sesame Street” will now be available to the more than 300 million subscribers of Netflix, giving it significantly more reach than in the past. New episodes will also be available on PBS the day they are released on Netflix, the first time in roughly a decade that the public broadcaster will have access to brand-new “Sesame Street” content. The new agreements will go into effect later this year.
Deal Is Shot in the Arm for ‘Sesame Street’ Producer
The deal is a much-needed shot in the arm for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces “Sesame Street” and has been in the throes of a financial crisis. Sesame Workshop laid off about 20% of its staff this year after several grants dried up, and, more significantly, it confronted a significant loss in revenue with the expiration of its current distribution deal, a lucrative contract with HBO.
Since 2015, HBO has paid Sesame Workshop $30 million to $35 million a year for new episodes of “Sesame Street,” The New York Times reported. But Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO’s parent company, is letting that deal expire as it turns away from children’s content and faces financial challenges of its own.
It was not immediately clear how much Netflix paid to distribute the show. But Sesame Workshop executives have warned employees for months that any new distribution agreements would bring in significantly less revenue than the old HBO deal.
In a note to staff, Sherrie Westin, CEO of Sesame Workshop, said that it was “certainly worth celebrating” that the show will be available in many more households going forward.
But, she added, “we will also have to find additional new ways to sustain our work, as the economics of these agreements are vastly different than those of the past, given the drastic market and media landscape shifts in recent years.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By John Koblin/Jonah Markowitz
c. 2025 The New York Times Company
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