Sesame Street, Hasbro Announce 10-Year Alliance

Sesame Workshop will end its long-standing toy marketing relationship with Mattel (Fisher Price) in January 2010, saying it is looking for a more year-round strategy to marketing its iconic brand. The producer and distributor of PBS' iconic Sesame Street has struck a new, 10-year deal with Hasbro that will allow the toy manufacturer to start marketing toys and branded games based on that shows characters starting on that date. Hasbro's imprints include Playskool, Milton Bradley, Tonka and Parker Bros. The deal is billed by the two as a 10-year global strategic alliance for a wide range of educational products based on characters from the PBS kids series including Elmo, Big Bird and Cookie Monster.