NBC has revealed the channel is pulling its hugely popular The Office from US Netflix next year and I think a lot of people going to be pissed.
Trade reports claim NBC will move Greg Daniels’ series to NBCUniversal’s streaming service from 2021.
Bonnie Hammer, chairman of NBCUniversal direct-to-consumer and digital enterprises, said in a statement:
The Office has become a staple of pop-culture and is a rare gem whose relevance continues to grow at a time when fans have more entertainment choices than ever before.
We can’t wait to welcome the gang from Dunder Mifflin to NBCUniversal’s new streaming service.
The Hollywood Reporter says all nine seasons of the iconic sitcom will be available to watch exclusively on NBCUniversal’s currently unnamed streaming service.
However, Netflix has been keen to remind fans that a deal is still in place with NBC until the end of 2020, so there’s plenty of times to watch Scranton’s best loved employees a good 10 or so times before it’s pulled from the streaming site.
In a tweet, Netflix said:
We’re sad that NBC has decided to take The Office back for its own streaming platform — but members can binge watch the show to their hearts’ content ad-free on Netflix until January 2021.
Back in April reports began suggesting NBCUniversal had already started internal conversations about what to do with The Office.
A report said at the time:
NBCUniversal, which owns the show, licensed reruns of the comedy to the streaming-video giant years ago.
Now, NBCUniversal is launching its own streaming service, and has begun internal discussions about removing The Office from Netflix when the contract expires in 2021, according to people familiar with the situation.
While the landscape of consuming content continues to change, it’s no surprise NBC is making the switch to the ever growing popular direct-to-consumer streaming business model.
After The Walt Disney Company announced they were building a direct-to-consumer product of its own, the House of Mouse has already decided to end its relationship with Netflix in hopes of keeping all of their content on their company-owned service, Disney+.
Can we all collectively pray that this isn’t the beginning of every franchise pulling its content from Netflix? After all, the majority of us can’t afford to subscribe to more than one streaming service.
All nine seasons of The Office are now streaming on Netflix.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.