Brought to you by the letters G-O-N-E: The content purge at HBO Max continues as the streaming platform has pulled about 200 older episodes of classic kids’ show “Sesame Street.”
The removal of the “Sesame Street” episodes and other recent content by HBO Max appears to be part of new owner Warner Bros. Discovery’s belt-tightening moves, aimed at reducing streaming-content payment obligations.
Warner Bros. Discovery said the decision to pull the titles from HBO Max were tied to the pending combo of the platform with Discovery+. “As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and Discovery+,” the company said in a statement. “That will include the removal of some content from both platforms.”
Some of the works set to disappear from HBO Max include the teen drama “Generation,” the “Sesame Street” spinoff “The Not-Too-Late-Show with Elmo,” and the animated series “Aquaman: King of Atlantis.”
The streaming platform also announced last month all eight “Harry Potter” movies would be removed. Other shows, such as the comedy series “Mrs. Fletcher” and rock-and-roll drama “Vinyl” were pulled without a direct announcement.
HBO Max did not announce why the TV shows and films were going to be cut from the service, but the move will help the company save money that would have gone toward paying residuals.
Washington Post
