Talk:What if Disney bought Sesame Workshop & The Jim Henson Company/@comment-44277296-20191030090731

I have long thought Disney should own The Jim Henson Company. They should have bought it in 2004, instead of merely the Muppets. The Henson brand could take advantage of Disney’s distribution and marketing muscle, and a Disney-owned Henson division wouldn’t be dependent on the success of one project. Plus, the Henson library would still be intact (full ownership of The Jim Henson Hour, Kermit in Emmet Otter, etc), and this combined library would be on Disney+.

Sesame Workshop? That’s a BIT more complicated. Disney and Henson are mainstream entertainment companies, one public, one private. Sesame...is a nonprofit. You can’t really “buy” it because there’s no one to buy it from. It’s a nonprofit. Involved in foundations, grants, fundraisers, tax dollars. Disney and Henson exist to make money for their shareholders and owners. Sesame exists to educate. Sesame Street is as iconic an “entertainment” brand as anything else, but it literally serves a different purpose.

I’m not a nonprofit expert, but just from fancy Google searches, it’s not unheard of apparently, for a nonprofit to transform itself into a for-profit. I think that would have to happen before Disney or anyone else could come sniffing for Sesame Street. And even that would cause some controversy. The Sesame Muppets were left out of Jim Henson’s original deal to sell his company to Disney back in 1989/90. And look at the reaction (a lot of it stupid and overblown) when HBO, and now HBO Max, got first-run rights to air Sesame. As if Sesame Workshop doesn’t need MONEY to survive. And the thought of Disney, a media colossus, aiming for Big Bird, would get a lot of blowback, deserved or not.

Now all that being said...doesn’t mean Disney buying Sesame is a horrid idea. If Sesame Street itself is still on the air, hopefully the powers that be will fund Sesame but let them do the show and handle the characters the way they’ve always done (researchers, educators and so on). No guarantee, but that’s what negotiations are for. I think, in our little scenario here, Disney should get Sesame Street 1. With Henson, all of Jim Henson’s Muppets would be back under the same roof. Less brand confusion, more cooperation and synergy. And 2. In this streaming universe, Disney could get its hands on one the most iconic shows of all time. Sesame Street, its 50-plus seasons, and the rest of the Workshop library, would fit neatly on Disney Plus, as opposed to HBO Max and others. I really think when HBO’s deal expires in 5 years, Disney should make a serious play for Sesame Street, if only for streaming rights.

It wouldn’t be perfect, nothing is, but Disney buying Henson and even somehow Sesame Workshop, is not the nuttiest idea in the world and carries great potential.