LOS ANGELES — The Muppets, longtime residents of PBS, are getting a second home at HBO.
The premium cable channel and Sesame Workshop, which produces “Sesame Street,” on Thursday announced a five-year deal that will expand the “Sesame Street” footprint and its programming.
The next five seasons of the respected children’s series will be available on HBO and its related platforms, including HBO GO and HBO On Demand. The deal will allow the Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization, to produce almost double the content of previous seasons, HBO and the workshop said. It will also provide the new shows free to PBS and its member stations after a nine-month window.
The new episodes will begin airing as early as this fall, with HBO the exclusive, first-run subscription TV distribution partner for “Sesame Street,” along with a new educational series, in English and Spanish.
