The day is almost here; very soon The Office will be leaving Netflix for good. One of the most popular sitcoms every produced, it's been a staple of Netflix for as long as most people have had the service, and it's consistently one of the most watched programs in the service's library. Of course, those kind of viewer numbers makes it a great selling point for anyone else that might be interested in launching a digital streaming service of their own, which is why the show will be moving to Peacock in 2021.
Part of that move comes with a nice perk: the first two seasons of The Office will be completely free to anyone who wants to watch. Peacock has several tiers, the first being a free tier that offers about half of the services' content with ads during viewing. The next tier up is $5 a month, and provides access to all the content on the service, but still includes ads. The final tier is $10 dollars a month, but will remove all those pesky ads for those who can't stand sitting through them.
That means that those who feel like starting yet another watch-through of the classic show will be able to start doing so at zero cost, besides the time spent on ads. Of course, there's a catch. Season 1 and 2 are completely free, but after that point audiences will be expected to pay for at least the basic plan. It's a fairly standard marketing tactic: give viewers a taste of what they want and then ask them to pay for the rest. At the very least it's better than having the show entirely locked behind the service, and NBCUniversal is likely hoping that people who subscribe for The Office will stick around for everything else they have to offer.
Peacock is also going to be offering some special bonuses for the show, including behind-the-scenes, featurettes, blooper reels, interviews, and various themed playlists and clips for those who want to see specific highlights over the entire series. Peacock launched in July 2020 but without some of its killer shows like The Office or the 2020 Olympics. As the service slowly starts to grow a library of hit shows and programming, it may start to creep onto the radar as a serious competitor to the likes of Netflix and Disney+.
The Office is currently available on Netflix, and will move to Peacock January 1st, 2021.
Source: IGN