Apple teams up with Sesame Workshop on kids’ programming

Bradley C | Jun 20 2018 - 10:28 am PT

For the past few months, there seems several stories related to Apple signing a deal with someone to develop original content. While the details of how all of this content comes together in one package remains to be seen, today’s news is certainly interesting.

Variety reports that Apple has teamed up with Sesame Workshop to develop original content.

Under the multi-series order, Sesame Workshop — the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street” — will produce live-action and animated series, as well as develop a puppet series for Apple. Over the course of its 50-year history, Sesame Workshop won more Daytime Emmys than any other children’s production company.

On Twitter, Ben Bajarin made a great point about Apple’s content strategy:

https://twitter.com/BenBajarin/status/1009483319044534272

Unlike sports content, which has a short shelf life, original content can be valuable for decades. I still see replays of Seinfeld and Friends playing on cable. Apple’s original content deals might provide a reason for customers to stick with the Apple ecosystem in the short term, but they might also provide another revenue stream in the longterm term if they license that content elsewhere.

I have seen quite a few new Netflix originals that my kids watch on their iPads and on Apple TV, so it will be interesting to see how much original kids themed content Apple ends up producing.