this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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If I have to google which streaming service a PBS show is on for my kid to watch. Something's messed
PBS shows are free on its own app/website though...
You'd think that, wouldn't you?
In actuality, they pull shit like only having the most recent season of things and whatnot. For example, there's no good reason why the PBS Kids Roku channel wouldn't have all 4666 episodes of Sesame Street, but it doesn't.
may i introduce you to the ARD Mediathek where 'Die Sendung mit der Maus' (a kind of sciency kids show) can have, by law, only the latest episode available for streaming. some other things may be available for longer, but it's still pretty stupid...
The old Sesame Street episodes are on Netflix and are tagged as not suitable for children
It could be related to the HBO deal which if I recall bankrolls Sesame Street.
I started to use Mr. Roger's Neighborhood as an example, but switched to Sesame Street for effect since the former "only" has 922 episodes. The point is, PBS does the same thing with all their shows. It doesn't matter who makes it; everything from Arthur to Word Girl only has a dozen or so episodes available at any given time.
(Ditto for non-kids PBS stuff like Nova or This Old House, for that matter, I think. Even on Youtube they only make the latest few seasons available and remove access to everything older in hopes you'll buy DVDs or something.)
It might be a rights issue. Not sure if PBS owns the rights, the Fred Rogers Company, or someone else. A lot of it doesn't seem available at all. I came across a near complete archive from a twitch stream though if you're interested: https://archive.org/details/@ipoy143
Yeah, I've run across that (it's surprising how much stuff you can get from archive.org). Unfortunately, I don't currently have enough disk space for it!
It can't only be a rights issue though, because, again, PBS restricts access to the back catalog of literally everything regardless of who owns it.
It wouldn’t be uncommon for the rights to be divided up and sold per season given the context of children’s content. They are a nonprofit.
Think of all the extra searches!