YouTube, Hulu, and iTunes have a received a high honor: the “Sesame Street” stamp of approval. This much-loved PBS program is in the process of establishing and/or expanding its presence on each of these sites.
Let’s start with what might be the least interesting effort. Reuters reports, “On Apple Inc’s iTunes store, people can download full episodes from season 35 and onward for $1.99. . . . Sesame Workshop will get 70 percent of the revenue in the iTunes deal, but the number of viewers is not likely to be a big one at first, said Terry Fitzpatrick, Sesame’s vice president of distribution.”
There are, after all, early DVD sets available if people really want to pay. And $2 feels a little steep for a show that doesn’t make its viewers deal with commercials. So on to the free stuff.
The “Sesame Street” YouTube channel is already home to 116 different clips. Most seem to be available in high quality, and thanks to the new push, more should be added as time goes by.
Hulu‘s “Sesame Street” page is in a similar state of development. Highlights include an opera-singing orange and Natalie Portman dressed as an elephant.
As my coworker John Vinson noted, it’s hard not to watch this stuff without smiling. We’d humbly suggest that you send the links to any friends with kids, and for that matter, maybe set them aside for some home viewing, as well.
