With 芝麻去, 芝麻街 Finds a 首页 Online

For such a gentle, low-key place, 芝麻街 is surprisingly cutting-edge. 的 biggest stars in Hollywood regularly drop by, and the producers turn those visits into viral videos. 现在, 芝麻街 has joined the online video revolution in a big way with the launch of 芝麻去.

比如Netflix或WWE Network, 芝麻去 is a subscription video-on-demand service that lets members stream all they want for a set price. 价格很低——3美元.每月99美元或29美元.每年99美元——而且选择有限. So far, the service has around 200 episodes of content split between 芝麻街 另一个儿童节目， Pinky Dinky Doo. 的 芝麻街 content mostly consists of episodes from the past 8 years, but there’s a selection of classic episodes from the show’s 45-year history.

Sesame Workshop’s decision to create a Netflix for the pre-K set might have surprised some. 毕竟, 芝麻街 already has a thriving YouTube channel where it could post all the content it wants. Why go the commercial route for a show regularly watched over public television?

首先，后面的人 芝麻街 wanted to build a direct relationship with their audience.

“We had that to some degree on our platforms like our website, 但大多数情况下, 我们不,斯科特·钱伯斯说。, senior vice president of worldwide media distribution at Sesame Workshop. “In most cases we go through distributors or aggregators or through partners, 像PBS, and it’s PBS or even the local PBS stations that maintain that direct relationship. 首先，也是最重要的, we wanted to build -- or start -- a direct dialog and relationship with our audience that would inform what we’re doing and help us to learn the kinds of content experiences that they’d prefer.”

奥特芝麻

的 roots of what would become 芝麻去 reach back 2 years, when the Sesame Workshop team started thinking about over-the-top video delivery and how they could use new technology platforms to stream long-form video directly to their audience. Evaluating providers and their solutions took Sesame Workshop about a year and a half, 所以芝麻游戏不是一夜之间创造出来的.

创作 co-founder and chief revenue officer Shay David says Sesame Workshop opened a formal request for proposal (RFP) in a search for new distribution and a way to engage with its audience in a manner that made business sense. 芝麻工作室最终选择了创作.

“What they wanted was to find a new system to centralize video management and to be able to find new modes of content distribution in a way that allows them to reach more audiences and engage those audiences in a way that they can make money,大卫说.

创作 answered the RFP by pitching its MediaGo platform, a controlled solution for content owners that want to stream directly to their audiences. MediaGo, which 创作 refers to as “Netflix in a box,” includes a set of tools that let content owners centralize content management and control video monetization.

MediaGo was a hit with Sesame Workshop from the start, David says. While MediaGo has an open source version, Sesame Workshop wasn’t interested. 仍然, going with a solution with an open platform product version meant that there was a developer community supporting it now and, 在未来. Sesame Workshop also liked the out-of-the-box nature of MediaGo, meaning that it didn’t need a lot of customization to become operational.

而不是, the customization Sesame Workshop needed was more about the interface, 为年轻观众保持简单. 的 UI needed to be easy, with big buttons and a minimum of clutter. 的 芝麻去 interface can work without text, although viewers who want longer descriptions can find them by clicking “更多的 Info” on their selection.

“Sesame is just not your average media company, right?大卫说. “It’s a company that’s an interesting media use case because they also have an educational mission and the capability to stay true to that educational mission and make sure that the product meets educational standards, 可用性标准, and is particularly designed to work with kids. 这对他们来说非常重要.”

曾经芝麻工坊选择了MediaGo, the entire process of creating 芝麻去 took only three months, 没有什么大麻烦. 的 process included altering the UI for young viewers, 通过焦点小组测试结果, and refining the product until it felt just right.

科技案例研究:《芝麻街

生产商s of the widely revered children’s series, “芝麻街,” have revolutionized more than just educational programming – they have also become innovators in content management.

2001年11月1日