By Gavin Boyle
YouTube and SESAME STREET expanded their partnership as hundreds of episodes of the beloved kids’ show will land on the platform starting in January 2026.
“Today, more families than ever before gather around the TV screen to watch YouTube. That’s why we’re excited to announce an expanded partnership with SESAME STREET to bring more of their beloved content to families who are tuning in…” YouTube said in a statement. “Beginning in January of 2026, YouTube will have the largest digital library of SESAME STREET content, with hundreds of full episodes coming to the platform. Alongside this collection of episodes, SESAME STREET will continue to post content created especially for the YouTube audiences, all featuring the iconic and lovable Muppets of SESAME STREET.”
Related: SESAME STREET Finds New Home on Streamer You Probably Have
The announcement revealed that the SESAME STREET YouTube channel garnered over 5 billion views in the past year — increasing by more than 100%.
This addition to the YouTube library comes as SESAME STREET makes moves to become a digital-first show after being dropped by Warner Bros. Discovery and being picked up by Netflix.
“This unique public-private partnership will enable Sesame Workshop to bring our research-based curriculum to young children around the world with Netflix’s global reach, while ensuring children in communities across the U.S. continue to have free access on public television to the SESAME STREET they love,” said Sherri Westin, CEO of Sesame Workshop after the deal with Netflix was announced.
The show’s partnership with YouTube will also come with exclusive seminars for content creators which will teach them how to create content that is both engaging and entertaining for child audiences.
This is extremely important as more and more kids now turn to platforms like YouTube and Twitch to fill their time, rather than the traditional edutainment shows on television. However, some content creators have stepped up to provide this type of content on these platforms, such as Ms. Rachel, who boasts over 16 million subscribers and 12 billion views since launching her channel in 2019.
However, experts inform parents that even high-quality edutainment does not replace the learning that kids need from external sources such as their environment, other kids and adults.
“[Ms. Rachel has] had speech language pathologists who have advised her on the kinds of cues that she uses and the way that she designs the show, which is perfectly fine and good,” Meryl Alper, an associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern University who specializes in the impact of technology on children, told Northeastern Global News. “But when it comes to having children actually learn language and acquire a sense of what’s called the transfer of learning — if you learn a word, use it in a different context — nothing really beats real-life interactions, especially for this age range.”
Nonetheless, adding hundreds of SESAME STREET episodes to YouTube is exciting for kids and parents alike as they can enjoy numerous seasons of the show that has meant so much to so many Americans for decades.
Read Next: Is ‘Edutainment’ the Future of Education?
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