Sesame Street's new partnership with YouTube will bring 'hundreds of full episodes' to the video platform

Sesame Street creator Sesame Workshop and YouTube have announced a new "extended partnership" that will bring episodes of the iconic children's show to the platform and a series of workshops for creators on "how to create content that is entertaining while also promoting learning." This new YouTube partnership joins an existing Netflix deal to stream new episodes of Sesame Street starting in November.

According to YouTube, it'll now have a catalog of "hundreds of full episodes" of the show, on top of "content created especially for the YouTube audience" featuring beloved Sesame Street characters. The fact that Sesame Workshop will help train the next generation of kid-friendly entertainers as part of the deal is also a direct acknowledgment that some children know Ms. Rachel before Big Bird. Of course, Sesame Street becoming even more of a presence on the platform fits larger trends. YouTube has firmly established itself as a home for kids entertainment and educational content, and that doesn’t seem like it’ll change anytime soon.

With distribution deals with Netflix and YouTube, Sesame Street seems like it's in a much more stable position than it was previously. The future of the series and its availability through free public broadcasters seemed uncertain after Warner Bros. Discovery opted to end its partnership with Sesame Workshop in 2024. As a beneficiary of government funding, cuts to public media made by the Trump administration also impact Sesame Street. These new partnerships guarantee there’ll still be multiple ways to watch the show for free, and it might even reach new audiences in the process.