Editing Sesame Street (section)

==Funding==
As a result of Cooney's initial proposal in 1968, the Carnegie Institute awarded her a $1 million grant to create a new children's television program and establish the CTW,<ref name="davis-8"/><ref name="finch-53"/><ref>Palmer & Fisch in Fisch & Truglio, p. 3</ref> renamed in June 2000 to [[Sesame Workshop]] (SW). Cooney and Morrisett procured additional multimillion-dollar grants from the U.S. federal government, [[The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations]], [[Corporation for Public Broadcasting|CPB]], and the [[Ford Foundation]]. Davis reported that Cooney and Morrisett decided that if they did not procure full funding from the beginning, they would drop the idea of producing the show.<ref>Davis, p. 105</ref> As Lesser reported, funds gained from a combination of government agencies and private foundations protected them from the economic pressures experienced by commercial broadcast television networks, but created challenges in procuring future funding.<ref>Lesser, p. 17</ref>

After ''Sesame Street''{{'}}s initial success, its producers began to think about its survival beyond its development and first season and decided to explore other funding sources. From the first season, they understood that the source of their funding, which they considered "seed" money, would need to be replaced.<ref name="davis-203">Davis, p. 203</ref> The 1970s were marked by conflicts between the CTW and the federal government; in 1978, the [[United States Department of Education|U.S. Department of Education]] refused to deliver a $2 million check (equivalent to ${{Inflation|index=US|value=2|start_year=1978|r=2}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) until the last day of CTW's fiscal year. As a result, the CTW decided to depend upon licensing arrangements with toy companies and other manufacturers, publishing, and international sales for their funding.<ref name="odell"/>

In 1998, the CTW accepted [[sponsor (commercial)|corporate sponsorship]] to raise funds for ''Sesame Street'' and other projects. For the first time, they allowed short advertisements by indoor playground manufacturer [[Discovery Zone]], their first corporate sponsor, to air before and after each episode. Consumer advocate [[Ralph Nader]], who had previously appeared on ''Sesame Street'', called for a boycott of the show, saying that the CTW was "exploiting impressionable children."<ref name="brooke"/> In 2015, in response to funding challenges, it was announced that [[pay television|premium television]] service [[HBO]] would air first-run episodes of ''Sesame Street''.<ref name="movetohbo"/> Steve Youngwood, SW's Chief Operating Officer, called the move "one of the toughest decisions we ever made."<ref name="guthrie2">{{cite news |last1=Guthrie |first1=Marisa |title=Where 'Sesame Street' Gets Its Funding — and How It Nearly Went Broke |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sesame-street-gets-funding-how-it-went-broke-1183032 |access-date=June 28, 2019 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=February 6, 2019}}</ref> According to ''The New York Times'', the move "drew an immediate backlash."<ref name="steel" /> Critics claimed that it favored privileged children over less-advantaged children and their families, the original focus of the show. They also criticized choosing to air first-run episodes on HBO, a network with adult dramas and comedies.<ref name="steel"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Luckerson |first1=Victor |title=This Is Why HBO Really Wants Sesame Street |url=https://time.com/3996575/hbo-sesame-street/?iid=time_readnext |access-date=April 23, 2019 |magazine=Time |date=August 13, 2019}}</ref>