Fact: ‘The Office’ Is Leaving Netflix … But Not Until January 2021

Fact: The Office was a popular early 2000s sitcom that was produced by NBC, that aired for nine seasons on NBC, that won the 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy for NBC, that is currently and has always been owned by NBC, and whose writers went on to create Parks & Recreation and Superstore for NBC.

Fact: The Office is returning to NBC — from Netflix — and people are pisssssssed.

Fact: The Streaming Wars are on like Jim and Pam’s wedding in Season 6 of The Office.

(Note for the approximately 16 people in America who either didn’t watch The Office during the nine years it ran on NBC or during the 10 years that it’s been one of the most-watched shows on Netflix: The Dwight Schrute character played by Rainn Wilson said “fact” a lot. It’s now a popular internet meme, and you can get it printed on coffee mugs, greeting cards and t-shirts on Etsy.)

Memes aside, The Office will continue to stream on Netflix until January 2021 when it will become an exclusive on NBCUniversal’s streaming service that’s set to launch in early 2020. The takeaways are these:

• For Netflix, this is one more data point in the drip-drip-drip of NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and Disney clawing back their film and TV catalogs to make them exclusives on their new streamers launching in late 2019 and 2020 and why Netflix is spending billions of dollars a year on originals to fill those soon-to-be-empty spaces.
• For NBCUniversal, The Office will be an important building block for an NBC service that will need a catalog of exclusive, popular shows to get any traction in a streaming market where Netflix will have 150 million global subscribers and NBC will start with zero.
• For consumers, The Office is — and I mean no disrespect here to NBC, Netflix or The Office — not all that important. The Office is regarded as one of the most popular shows on Netflix, but that’s a bit like deeming cottage cheese one of the most popular items on Ruby Tuesday’s salad bar. It’s popular, sure, but it’s not the reason you’re there.

The Office is an important part of American popular culture and my own personal TV canon. I watched B.J. Novak’s “Diversity Day” episode last week on Netflix, and it’s as uncomfortably funny, culturally astute and politically relevant as it was in March 2005 when it originally aired on NBC. It’s A Very Important Show that I can’t imagine disappearing into streaming obscurity.

But will a Peoria family of four pay $10 a month to watch it on NBC’s new streaming service? Probably not. Netflix has so successfully broken the association between NBC and The Office that the show is effectively a Netflix original now. And, more to the point, consumers don’t want more streaming services; they want more Netflix.

The initial value proposition for the NBC service will be as a free, ad-supported TV Everywhere app for pay-TV subscribers. NBCUniversal will eventually need the service to generate subscription revenue, though, and a service stuffed with NBC comedies, Bravo’s Real Housewives catalog, The Fast and the Furious oeuvre, the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, my beloved Minions, and a lot of originals could absolutely do that. The Office will certainly help.

I’m skeptical of the idea that the 1.3 million U.S. households who dropped their traditional bundled TV service in the first three months of this year will spend much of the $100 a month that they’re saving on a bunch of new streaming services. A big reason Tubi has 20 million monthly active users and YouTube is the most popular video outlet in the world is that they are free, ad-supported services.

Fact: Consumers will pay for streaming. Netflix has 60 million U.S. subscribers, Hulu has 28 million U.S. subscribers, and the Disney+ service launching this fall with the Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and Disney catalogs and new originals has the makings of a massive hit.

Fact: The value proposition for NBCUniversal’s upcoming services is much less clear.

Scott Porch writes about the TV business for Decider and is a contributing writer for Playboy. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.

Where to stream The Office