'Sesame Street' to cancel its subscription streaming service

NEW YORK, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- As part of Sesame Street's move to HBO, Sesame Workshop has announced that its subscription-based Internet streaming service, Sesame Go, will be discontinued.

In its place, new episodes of the long running educational kids' show will appear on HBO platforms such as HBO GO and HBO Now.

Currently the Netflix style app charges subscribers $3.99 a month or $29.99 a month to view Sesame Street content including full episodes.

"We are going to be phasing it out as a standalone subscription service," said Sesame Workshop chief operating officer Steve Youngwood to the Washington Post.

While the subscription service is ending, the company plans on reformatting the app down to a free version that would provide less content. The company hopes to keep children engaged as they consume more content online and through streaming services.

"Two-thirds of children who first discover Sesame do so through some on-demand platform," said Youngwood, "whether that's YouTube or cable systems, or streaming video on demand, or a game."

On Friday, Sesame Workshop announced the new partnership with HBO that will bring the next five seasons of Sesame Street to the pay-cable TV network.

The last day of Sesame Go service has yet to be determined.