Sesame Workshop Titles Travel to AsiaPac

NEW YORK: Sesame Workshop has closed deals to air a broad lineup of Sesame Street programming this year in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

As part of the agreements, Cookie’s Crumby Pictures will be dubbed into Mandarin for Taiwan’s Eastern Broadcasting’s cable channel, YOYO TV; ABS-CBN in the Philippines will carry Sesame Street on its Yey digital terrestrial channel; and MCOT in Thailand will broadcast Elmo the Musical, Elmo’s World, Sesame Best Friends, Sesame Street, Super Healthy Monsters and Cookie’s Crumby Pictures, dubbed into Thai for its MCOT Family channel.

The agreements were secured through Thaole Entertainment, the company’s master licensee for content distribution in the region.

“We’re pleased to offer families engaging educational content featuring some of kids’ favorite feathered and furry friends,” said Gisela Abrams, the assistant VP of international media business for Asia-Pacific at Sesame Workshop. “Working with YOYO TV, ABS-CBN and MCOT allows us to encourage preschoolers to learn numbers from The Count, inner strength from Elmo and kindness from Abby—laying the groundwork for important life lessons.”

Danie Sedilla-Cruz, the channel head at DTT Kids Channel, commented: “ABS-CBN Corporation is proud to be the broadcast partner of Sesame Street in the Philippines. A lot of people from different parts of the world grew up watching Sesame Street and we recognize its strength as a brand. But more than that, we acknowledge the values and teachings it can bring our young Filipino viewers. Sesame Street currently airs as the banner preschool program of Yey, the first full-time kids’ channel on a Philippine free-TV platform. We opted to broadcast it in its original language as a response to our audience’s need for English content.”

Jamorn Jirapaet, the senior VP of MCOT Public Company Limited, said: “Sesame programming is a strong fit for MCOT Family’s focus on fun and creative programs that help to nurture children’s positive family relationships.”

Jessie Lin, acquisition executive at Eastern Broadcasting, remarked: “Cookies Crumby Pictures made its debut on YOYO in January 2016, and has delivered strong ratings amongst young children and adults through is creative use of film spoofs and humor.”

Linh Phan, the director of Thaole Entertainment, added: “We are delighted that our broadcast partners believe in the positive values of the Sesame brand and it is our intention to increase the exposure for Sesame Street in Q3 and Q4 of 2016 with additional deals in the SVOD space.”