The IBC2018 International Honour for Excellence has been awarded to Joan Ganz Cooney.
Cooney, who co-founded Children’s Television Workshop – now Sesame Workshop – in 1968, will receive IBC’s highest award as part of the IBC Awards Ceremony on Sunday 16th September.
The show Sesame Street first appeared on TV in the US in November 1969. Today, the show is seen in 150 countries worldwide, and localised versions have been made in more than 20 countries, including Mexico (46 years), Germany (45 years), and the Netherlands (42 years).
Accepting the award will be president of media & education and COO of Sesame Workshop, Steve Youngwood, who will be accompanied on stage by a very special guest from Sesame Street.
“We are grateful to IBC for recognising the ways that, for almost 50 years, we have used the combined power of media and the Muppets of Sesame Street not simply to advance the world of educational media, but to touch countless children’s lives,” said Cooney. “We are proud and humbled to receive the International Honour for Excellence, and on behalf of everyone at Sesame Workshop, past and present, I thank you.”
IBC CEO Michael Crimp added: “Through television, and now through new media, Sesame Street is a genuinely positive, transformative influence in children’s lives. It has transformed television and had a huge impact on our industry. I am proud that we will be able to present the IBC International Honour for Excellence to its co-founder, Joan Ganz Cooney, who is incidentally the first woman to receive the award.”
