Home Box Office (HBO) recently announced its new partnership with Sesame Street. The iconic series has screened on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for the last 45 years, but due to funding issues taking a devastating hit amid the rise of Netflix and other streaming services, Sesame Workshop simply did not have enough money to continue producing new episodes of the series.

Many families will probably shrug at the idea of paying for a children’s series, but the network thinks otherwise. HBO’s CEO Richard Plepler stated, “What we’re looking to do is excite a wide cross section of our audience.” Netflix and channels such as Disney and Nickelodeon produce heaps of children’s series, but none of their products compare to Sesame Street. Over 95% of American viewers have watched Sesame Street’ and eight million viewers tune in every week. Sesame Workshop and HBO both believe that they will benefit greatly from the partnership based on Sesame Street’s long time success and educational value to young children.

Brand new episodes will air in the fall, and PBS will show them nine months after that. Furthermore, Sesame Workshop’s new deal with HBO will also allow them to produce a Muppets spinoff series.