Disney is certainly no stranger to buying up the rights to other intellectual properties.
©Disney
We’ve seen it with Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, and more recently with the exclusive streaming rights for Bluey in the United States on Disney+. Now, an iconic children’s program’s future is up in the air — could Disney be the one to save it?
Sesame Street’s future is up in the air as the long-running show looks for a home to air new original episodes. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Discovery has opted not to renew the output deal it had on HBO and Max.
©Sesame Street
Max will continue to license episodes from the Sesame Street library through 2027, with the upcoming Season 55 still being available on Max starting next month. Max has chosen to change its strategy and focus more on adult and family programming, with less emphasis on kids’ shows like Sesame Street.
©Sesame Street
“It has been a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street on the iconic children’s series and we are thrilled to be able to keep some of the library series on Max in the U.S.,” a Max spokesperson shared. “As we’ve launched Max though and based on consumer usage and feedback, we’ve had to prioritize our focus on stories for adults and families, and so new episodes from Sesame Street, at this time, are not as core to our strategy.”
Big Bird
The show had been on HBO since 2016 (with episodes later airing on PBS) and moved to Max in 2019. Now, it’s possible that many major media companies — including Disney — could be interested in the show due to its name and long-lasting popularity. But, Netflix, AppleTV+, and Prime Video don’t necessarily already have the strong catalog of kids’ programming that Disney does.
©Sesame Street
As of now, Disney hasn’t made any sort of announcements or grumblings about potentially picking this iconic show up, but they’ve been known to acquire different intellectual properties in the past, so we certainly wouldn’t be shocked if it ended up happening. If it does, we’ll definitely let you know!
In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for any potential updates on this and the latest Disney news. Don’t forget to stay tuned to the Disney Food Blog for more!
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Would that mean they would own Sesame Place?!
Sesame Street is more important then ever in these times. It would be nice to keep it going for all.