SesameWorkshop
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Apple adds Sesame Workshop kids’ programming to its TV slate
Apple has a large and ever-growing slate of shows in the works, including dramas, comedies, sci-fi originals and thrillers, and soon it will include programming geared toward children. Variety reports today that Apple has teamed up with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, to create live-action and animated series as well as a show featuring puppets. Sesame Street will not be included, however, as HBO has exclusive rights to new episodes.
Elmo takes the spotlight in new YouTube series
Sesame Street's producers realize that kids these days are spending their days glued to devices other than their TVs. Its presence on YouTube has more than two million subscribers, and it recently launched Sesame Studios to test new ideas on web-savvy kids. But that doesn't mean that the regular Street channel is being neglected, since it's about to devote the next six months to making Elmo a YouTube star. The Sesame Workshop is launching the "Love to Learn" campaign that'll see the channel providing a series of themed videos between July and December. Each month will tackle a different topic, from Animals and Music through to Cooking and Kindness.
Sesame Workshop launches an experimental new YouTube channel
The organization that's made Sesame Street for nearly 50 years is now looking to branch out in a different way on YouTube. In addition to the existing Sesame Street channel, Sesame Workshop is now launching Sesame Studios, a channel specifically for new and experimental educational videos. It's designed as a way to reach a new generation of kids that spend more time with smartphones and tablets than sat in front of the TV. NPR is reporting that, despite the name, the stars of Sesame Street won't be appearing in any capacity, and will instead groom a whole new group of cute characters to win our hearts.
HBO's exclusive deal for 'Sesame Street' cuts out Amazon and Netflix
With HBO finally doing battle directly against streaming video subscriptions from Netflix and Amazon, its biggest strike against those two comes today with an exclusive deal for Sesame Street. Most of us have grown up with Big Bird, Cookie Monster and the rest available primarily through PBS and they'll still be there, but with this five-year deal, HBO gets a nine-month exclusive (cable and streaming) on new episodes. Sesame Workshop CEO Jeff Dunn called the arrangement "a true winning public-private partnership model," that will give it the funding to keep making new episodes of the show, and a new Sesame Street Muppet spinoff series.
Sesame Street's executive producer on staying relevant after 46 years
Thanks to Netflix, Amazon and YouTube, the competition for kid's eyeballs is fiercer than ever, but that's not slowing down Sesame Street. Now in its 46th year, the show is making a bigger and bigger push into social media, with often hilarious (but secretly educational) results. I sat down with the show's Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, Carol Lynn-Parente, shortly after meeting my new best friend, Cookie Monster, to talk about the show's digital life and more.
Cookie Monster: The Engadget Interview
It'd be wrong to say that the cast of Sesame Street just discovered the internet. As it is, the show's characters have dozens of games and mobile apps, with a large video archive that goes at least as far back as "Me Lost Me Cookie At The Disco." It would seem, though, that someone over at the Sesame Workshop has been working to bring Big Bird and co. into the twenty-first century. For starters, Big Bird only just issued his first tweet ("tweet" -- get it?) last week. Meanwhile, PBS Kids just premiered Cookie Monster's first movie, The Cookie Thief, and, in an effort to promote it, also came up with this ingenious gif generator that basically lets Cookie take over your browser.
