Sesame Unveils New YouTube Kids Channel

NEW YORK: Sesame Workshop has launched Sesame Studios, a YouTube Kids channel featuring new non-Muppet characters, short-form series and original stories.

Sesame Workshop will create native content designed specifically for a digital platform. Sesame Studios will feature 1- to 5-minute videos focused on such topics as literacy, health and social-emotional development, with three new videos being added each week. The channel will be hosted by Marvie, a new digital puppet character who will introduce videos and playlists while encouraging little ones to interact with content as they watch. The creative team will collaborate with leading digital personalities and creators to appeal to a wide audience while still maintaining the same educational focus as Sesame Street. Sesame Studios follows on the success of the Sesame Street YouTube channel, which has 2 million subscribers.

Sesame Studios’s theme song was penned and produced by singer/songwriter/actor and YouTube star Todrick Hall. Other creative talents include Vsauce Network, Mystery Guitar Man, Jon Burgerman, The Pop Ups, Justin Yu and Khoa Phan. Among the videos on the channel will be live-action nursery rhymes, animated milestone songs and animal films, as well as new digital-native shows such as The Totems, Scribble Tales and Words with Puffballs. Families will be able to co-view Sesame Studios content on the main YouTube channel, and children can watch videos on the YouTube Kids app.

“Sesame Street was the original disrupter in kids’ media,” said Steve Youngwood, the COO of Sesame Workshop. “When Sesame Street began, Joan Ganz Cooney said, ‘It’s not whether kids are learning from television, but what they are learning.’ The same is true today with preschoolers and YouTube Kids. We are a creative workshop with a 45-year history of breaking new ground. Sesame Studios represents another new frontier for us—one where we can bring our educational expertise to an emerging platform for our audiences.”

“For nearly half a century, Sesame Workshop has enriched the lives of children while embracing the evolving media landscape—whether it was TV in 1970s or digital today,” noted Malik Ducard, the global head of family and learning for YouTube. “We’re excited and honored that Sesame is releasing this new and inspired channel, Sesame Studios, on YouTube Kids.”

“We’re thrilled to build upon the Sesame Street legacy as we partner with amazing talent around the globe to build Sesame Studios,” added Kay Wilson Stallings, the senior VP of creative development at Sesame Workshop. “Our partners benefit from our creative and child development expertise, and we are able to reach new audiences. Our goal is what it’s always been: to engage children with compelling, meaningful content.”