Happy Sunday, y’all 👋. I hope you had a great weekend and are recharging for next week.

The focus of today’s deep dive is how two of the most recognizable names in children’s entertainment are reshaping their futures at the same time. Sesame Workshop is moving its flagship programming from HBO to Netflix as it adapts to new funding pressures and shifting viewing habits. The Henson family is preparing to sell the Muppets, opening the door for a major ownership change of one of the most enduring franchises in American culture.

Both moves highlight how legacy children’s IP is being rebuilt for a streaming era where distribution power, audience behavior, and long term economics have fundamentally changed.

Driving the news: Sesame Workshop is restructuring its distribution strategy as it leaves HBO for Netflix, a shift driven by funding pressure and changing viewing behavior, according to reporting by Elissaveta M. Brandon for Fast Company. At the same time, the Henson family is preparing to sell the Muppets, which would transfer one of entertainment’s most enduring franchises to new ownership, following coverage by Brooks Barnes for The New York Times.

What’s interesting: These developments expose the same underlying shift. The business models that once supported legacy children’s media no longer match the way children watch today. On demand platforms now dominate viewing, and the economics that sustained educational programming and character driven franchises have not kept pace. Both Sesame Workshop and the Muppets are adjusting to a landscape where a small group of global streamers controls reach, value, and long term sustainability.

For established IP, the challenge is not only securing new partners. It is rebuilding the financial and creative structures required to stay relevant in a market defined by fragmented attention and tighter margins.

The friction: Sesame Workshop is mission driven but financially constrained. Moving to Netflix offers scale and stability, but it also places the brand inside an environment built for fast moving, personality driven children’s programming. Maintaining educational depth while competing for attention on a global platform introduces natural tension, and the economics of streaming limit the flexibility the organization once relied on.

The Muppets face a related but distinct challenge. Their cultural resonance remains strong, yet their commercial relevance has weakened in a marketplace shaped by algorithm driven discovery. The decision to sell reflects how difficult it has become to refresh a franchise created for a broadcast era. Reviving the Muppets will likely require capital, distribution, and creative reinvention that only a major entertainment company or global platform can provide.

Both stories underscore a broader truth. These brands carry deep cultural weight, but they must now operate within a system optimized for speed, scale, and constant novelty.

What this unlocks: If day passes hold up legally and commercially, other distributors could follow. That would pressure networks to rethink access models and pricing tiers. There’s also a branding angle: day passes reframe cable networks from locked-in utilities to event-driven experiences. That shift rewards companies that can package their content around moments, not months. It also accelerates the move toward direct-to-consumer streaming, because if consumers want flexibility, the owner of the IP can usually offer it more profitably than the middleman.

The bigger picture: These moves illustrate how quickly the center of gravity in children’s entertainment has shifted. The broadcast era rewarded stability, long running characters, and predictable viewing. Today’s environment rewards constant refresh, global reach, and alignment with platform economics. Streamers now determine which franchises get reinvested in, which are revived, and which fade.

For legacy IP, longevity once guaranteed relevance. Now it is a challenge that demands active reinvention.

Bottom line: Children’s and family entertainment is one of the few categories that drives daily use, long term retention, and multi viewer engagement inside a single household. For streamers, that makes trusted legacy IP a strategic asset rather than just programming.

For everything else, see below 👇:

Entertainment

1. Pop Mart Shoots for Global Stardom as Labubu Heads to Thanksgiving Parade — (Kathryn Lundstrom for Adweek) — Link

2. TikTok Awards 2025: La La Anthony To Host, With Paris Hilton, Bethenny Frankel, More Joining — (Armando Tinoco for Deadline) — Link

3. ‘Wicked,’ ‘Zootopia’ Upend Hollywood’s PG Movie Playbook — (Erich Schwartzel for The Wall Street Journal) — Link

Culture

4. In an era where culture has been flattened by algorithms, are we yearning for art that challenges us? — (Kemi Alemoru for Dazed) — Link

Fashion

5. ‘Marty Supreme’ Jacket Timothee Chalamet Wore in New York Draws Fans and the Fashion World — (Jessica Testa for The New York Times) — Link

Streaming

6. Netflix, Warner Bros. Talk Potential Deal to Bring More Movies to Theaters — (Brent Lang for Variety) — Link

7. Why MLB Is Suddenly Betting Big on NBC and Netflix — (Alec MacGillis for Fast Company) — Link

Platforms

8. Roblox Bid for Ad Riches Collides With Wary Sponsors, Developers — (Cecilia D'Anastasio for Bloomberg) — Link

Social Media

9. What If TikTok Was A Mid Size Cable Network? — (Wayne Friedman for MediaPost) — Link

AI

10. The DoorDash Problem and the Future of AI Agents — (Nilay Patel for The Verge) — Link

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