Nickelodeon is buying Sesame Workshop's 50 percent interest in their jointly
owned Noggin kids cable network.
Sesame likely is looking to redirect its resources to production.
"Cable is our primary business and not necessarily theirs," said Nickelodeon
President Herb Scannell, who is adding Noggin, reaching about 25 million subs,
to his watch.
Sesame Workshop will continue to produce shows for Noggin, including Sesame
Street spin-off Play with Me Sesame, which will run exclusively on Noggin
for seven years.
Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell said the sale "gives us a better
financial base and offsets the purchase price of our most important asset, the
Sesame characters."
Noggin, a programmer for pre-schoolers during the day and tweens at night,
now comes under the MTV Networks umbrella.
Noggin General Manager Tom Ascheim will report to Scannell.
