Like all public goods, privatization had to come for Sesame Street eventually. The show and characters just made too much god damn money from book/toy/home video sales (which originally was meant just to fund PBS, the Children's Television Workshop, and charitable causes without corps like Doordash hogging the PR) not for capitalist exploiters to try to make a buck off their brand recognition.
Like all public goods, privatization had to come for Sesame Street eventually. The show and characters just made too much god damn money from book/toy/home video sales (which originally was meant just to fund PBS, the Children's Television Workshop, and charitable causes without corps like Doordash hogging the PR) not for capitalist exploiters to try to make a buck off their brand recognition.