HBO Max continues to remove content as it axes about 200 older episodes of Sesame Street. This continues the move by Warner Bros. Discovery which has since removed loads of movies and shows off the streaming platform.
HBO Max removes a large portion of Sesame Street off the service
In 2015, a deal landed Sesame Street on the streaming service. While it offered a new revenue method for the series, it also gave HBO rights to release new episodes on its platform before heading to PBS, the show’s original home. The agreement is set to last until 2025.
Besides the original series, its other projects are still available. HBO Max offers Sesame Street Mecha Builders, seven seasons of My Sesame Street Friends, and the Elmo and Abby special, The Magical Wand Chase.
On Wednesday (August 17). Variety reported that HBO Max would remove a mix of 36 movies and shows, which included at least 20 shows like Generation, Infinity Train, and Summer Camp Island. That is in addition to what leaves every month, which in this case was all eight Harry Potter films. It has also quietly axed movies and shows like Camping, Vinyl, Mrs. Fletcher, and Run. The move is to set things up for the plan to combine Discovery+ and HBO Max, which will happen by the summer of 2023 in the U.S., leading to the removal of content across both streaming services.
In recent weeks, the shakeup has been relentless. Besides quiet removals and Sesame Street losing about 200 episodes, the most notable was the shelving of the Batgirl movie. As its production troubles ballooned its small budget to $90 million, the studio wrote it off for taxes rather than releasing it in theaters or HBO Max.
