I Bought You With GONE: HBO Max’s content purge continues as the streaming platform has pulled about 200 old episodes of the classic children’s show “Sesame Street.”
The removal of “Sesame Street” episodes and other recent content by HBO Max appears to be part of the belt-tightening steps for new owner Warner Bros. Discovery, which aims to reduce payment obligations for streaming content.
As of Friday, HBO Max has listed 456 total episodes of “Sesame Street,” with a selection of seasons 1, 5 and 7 and the full lineup from the latest seasons 39-52. Of these, only 29 are from the first seasons. Previously, the streaming service offered about 650 episodes of “Sesame Street,” including episodes from seasons 2-4 and each season between 8 and 35, as well as special episodes.
Warner Bros. representatives did not respond. Discovery and Sesame Workshop for Comment Requests.
HBO and Sesame Workshop first struck a deal in 2015, providing a new revenue stream for “Sesame Street,” with HBO giving the rights to play new episodes of the featured series first before they feature in its long-running home, PBS. Their current agreement keeps “Sesame Street” on HBO Max until 2025.
Currently still available on HBO Max, in addition to the remaining episodes of “Sesame Street,” are the ten episodes of “Sesame Street Mecha Builders,” seven season specials of “My Sesame Street Friends” and “The Magical Wand Chase” featuring Elmo and Abby.
The removal of the “Sesame Street” titles comes after HBO Max announced on Wednesday that at least 36 more films will leave the service this week. This includes 20 original shows from HBO Max, including teen drama “Generation,” the animated anthology series “Infinity Train” and children’s show “Summer Camp Island,” as well as several “Sesame Street” specials. That’s in addition to previously announced titles ending HBO Max this month, including all eight of the original “Harry Potter” films.
Warner Bros. said. Discovery The decision to pull titles from HBO Max is tied to the platform’s pending pool with Discovery+. “As we work to bring our content catalogs together on one platform, we will make changes to the display of content available on both HBO Max and Discovery+,” the company said in a statement. “This will include removing some content from both platforms.”
In recent weeks, HBO Max has also quietly removed six Warner Bros. films. and HBO shows such as “Camping,” “Vinyl,” “Mrs. Fletcher,” and “Run.” Under the supervision of Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max also recently killed Greg Berlanti’s DC series “Strange Adventures” and the live-action movie “Wonder Twins.”
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