Sesame Street's move to HBO, explained

[Commentary] Big Bird is about to join forces with "Game of Thrones", under a new deal that will take first-run episodes of Sesame Street to HBO. The episodes will still air on PBS -- several months later. The terms of the deal will allow for more Sesame episodes per season. Sesame Workshop (once known as the Children's Television Workshop), the production company behind the series, could only make 18 installments per year on PBS. That number will be upped to 35. Sesame Street will begin airing on HBO in late fall 2015, and the deal is for the next five TV seasons.

The thought of the show no longer being exclusive to PBS is likely a very strange one to many, but it's a sign of the TV world that's rapidly coming into being -- one in which there are more revenue streams than ever but it's harder and harder to find profitability, especially for independent production companies like SW. Though Big Bird and the other Sesame Street characters are among the most iconic faces of PBS, the broadcaster doesn't actually own the show or its characters. Instead, they're owned by SW, which has produced the series since it debuted in November 1969. In fact, PBS owns almost none of its iconic programs, which tend to be produced by member stations, foreign broadcasters, or independent filmmakers. The network has a programming budget, but it invests very little of it in producing its own programming and, instead, focuses on acquisitions. The margin is razor thin for everybody in television right now -- and just how little money niche broadcasters like PBS have when competing with the biggest fish in the pond. When we think about Sesame Street, we almost never think of its financial viability. Now, if we cue up a first-run episode on HBO Go for our kids, that might be at the top of our minds.