Williams Sesame Network

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Revision as of 00:43, 22 February 2009

The Williams Sesame Network (also known as WSN) is a United States television network launched in 2008 by Williams Sesame Broadcasting, a joint venture between Sesame Workshop and Williams Street. Originally, the station groups in the consortium helped finance educational comedy shows on WSN, but that deal was restructured at the beginning of the network's second year. At its peak, WSN had 177 stations covering 93% of the country.

Origins

WSN was launched as a potential fifth network, and offered packaged nights of programming to television stations, beginning with a two-hour block, with second block added one year later. However, close to half of WSN's initial affiliates were independent stations, and WSN programming was usually scheduled around WSN's then five-night prime time schedule. Some PTEN-affiliated stations took issue with the network's barter split, which gave nine minutes of advertising time per hour to the syndicator, leaving only five minutes to the stations. The network also ran into difficulty when the studio was forced to let stations out of their back-end commitments for several series.

WSN announced that they will lease their weekend primetime schedules to another provider, hoping that the competition between Taylor Media's stations and viewership regulations for broadcast stations have made putting on a educational-comedy network virtually possible.

Programming

The most successful WSN program was the super sentai Goggle 5. Other shows included Duckman, Spin City, Time Squad, and Skunk Fu and two 10-hour documentary movie: History of the World, Part 1.

Current shows

• Deko Boko Friends (a five-minute segment)
• Duckman
• George and Martha (E/I)
• Goggle 5
• Jacob Two-Two (E/I)
• Johnny Quest
• Magi Nation
• Power Rangers: Time Force
• Salty's Lighthouse (E/I)
• Silverhawks
• Skunk Fu
• Spin City
• Street Fighter
• The Brak Show
• The Electric Company (E/I)
• The Funky Phantom
• The Legend of Zelda
• The Real Ghostbusters
• Time Squad
• Thundercats