With The Office starting to fade away on Netflix, NBCUniversal’s Peacock is ramping up its promotion that it will be the exclusive streaming home of the series, starting Jan. 1.
The Office, which ran NBC from 2005 to 2013, has been one of the most popular shows on Netflix. NBCUniversal decided not to renew rights to the show with Netflix and use it for its fledgling direct-to-consumer offering, in a deal believed to be worth $100 million year.
Also Read: NBCU to Move ‘The Office’ Off Netflix and to Its Own OTT Platform in 2021
Peacock said the first two seasons of The Office will be available on Peacock’s free tier. Seasons 3 through 7--as well as expanded “superfan episodes--will be available on Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 a month and the ad-free version, which is $9.99 a month.
Those “superfan episodes” will include never-before-seen footage and deleted scenes, starting with Season 3.
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Other behind-the-scenes footage, such as bloopers, featurettes and interviews will be available.
There will be a 24/7 Office Zen channel of ambient noise devoted to the sights and sounds of the office for people working at home.
Collections of themed episodes are being put together, such as those with Office parties or guest visitors.
There will also be clip playlists to provide memorable pranks, romances and words of wisdom from the show.
In February, Spanish-language audio and Spanish closed captions will be available for original episodes and super-fan episodes.
There will also be Office channels in Giphy and TikTok where fans can share their favorite Office bits.
"Having The Office back in the NBC family opens up access to a lot of extra content that we originally shot,” said Greg Daniels, the creator of the U.S. version of The Office. “The team at Peacock wanted to create the ultimate destination for fans, so I went back into the dailies with the original editors of the show and found some never-before-seen footage that was cut for time but is still fun to see. You can choose to watch the classic version of the show, or the superfan extended cuts with this new footage and other deleted scenes that we are gradually rolling out, starting with season 3. The experience on Peacock should feel like a celebration of The Office for fans."
Much of this information was conveyed to reporters in an ersatz memo from Dunder Mifflin CEO David Wallace to all employees of the fictional paper company.
“This memorandum is to inform everyone that we expect a significant spike in sales starting on January 1, 2021 when Peacock starts streaming the documentary footage that was shot at Dunder Mifflin Scranton between 2005 and 2013. This includes all previously released episodes and brand new, never-before-seen content. We anticipate that this will cause renewed interest in our product lines, especially as a result of the footage that will be released for the very first time. Customers will definitely be calling and they will most certainly have questions,” Wallace said.
“While we expect the call volume to match the unfortunate cartoon mouse/duck watermark fiasco from 2007, we very much look forward to what may be our most significant sales period in recent history,” he said.
