Thanks to a very positive community response to their “Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting” marathon, Twitch has decided that they will be conducting a “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood” marathon which will last approximately eighteen days. The marathon of the legendary children's show will start broadcasting on May 15, 2017 at 9 a.m. ET, 8 a.m. CT, and 12 p.m. PT
The marathon will show all 886 episodes of the famous and be streamed live at Twitch. Fans of the show can expect to see episodes that only aired once and are currently unavailable anywhere else online.
Moreover, Twitch has stated that they plan to do a handful of mini-marathons for the show, following their eighteen day marathon of “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.” Twitch is conducting the marathon for the classic “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood” television show to help support a fundraising campaign for a slew of local PBS stations.
Twitch is expanding their platform
Twitch saw a lot of success with their “Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting” marathon, with over 5.6 million viewers tuning into the marathon, so another marathon only seemed logical. Twitch is primarily known as a popular service for video gamers who stream their adventures online and has become synonymous with gaming streams. Professional gaming competitions often stream on Twitch, and the famous service has provided an avenue for average consumers to show their adventures and make money from their streams.
Twitch has become so ingrained in the gaming community that an app was created for gaming consoles, which has helped the service boom in popularity.
Why Mister Rogers?
Bill Moorier, Head of Creative at Twitch, has stated that Twitch is desperate to expand into other content that is non-gaming related. This switch has been demanded and suggested by fans of the service for some time and it seems like Twitch is finally giving their consumers what they want.
Bill Moorier, also commented on “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood” and why the service chose Fred Rogers for their new marathon.
Rogers was known as a very positive voice for educating audiences on diverse and inclusive issues. Rogers also talked to the camera to help viewers feel like they were in the room with him, which fits the same style that most Twitch streamers approach their channels.
The messages of Fred Rogers have a universal appeal to wide range of viewers around the world, which is all part of the image that Twitch is trying to build for themselves and for PBS.
About the famous show
“Mister Rogers' Neighborhood” is a legendary children's show that ran from February 19, 1968 to February 20, 1976, and again from August 27, 1979 to August 31, 2001. Fred Rogers spent decades of his life teaching children about a wide range of topics including: science, music, arts and crafts, socialization between friends, tours of famous factories, and he often gave tours of local businesses like bakeries and workshops to explain their functions.
A “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood” marathon is a great step forward for Twitch as the company continued to try to expand their range of video streams outside of their signature gaming channels.
