Netflix Reportedly Offered $90 Million to Keep ‘The Office’

By now, you’ve heard the news that The Office will be departing Netflix in January 2021 from Netflix in the United States. The details of the deals between Netflix and NBCUniversal are now available.

Alex Sherman from CNBC reports that we know many key elements of the negotiation.

First, Netflix paid $90 million for The Office to stream on Netflix until 2021. That’s per year too, so every year, Netflix would have to cough up $90 million to keep the NBC show streaming. That’s slightly less than what Netflix reportedly paid Warner Media for Friends this year which cost $100 million although that figure has been reported to be inflated with the true figure being around $80 million.

This would indicate that The Office is the most popular property currently on Netflix US. They literally paid through the nose for it to be kept. That’s very impressive given The Office is fast approaching its 10-year anniversary from concluding its final season.

Alex Sherman claims that nearly twice as many Friends watch The Office than Friends.

The second surprise is Netflix's offer to also share streaming rights for The Office. That’s something Netflix doesn’t typically do with them preferring to be the exclusive provider of each show it streams whether that be licensed or an Original.

In a tweet, Alex said: “One of the ideas I’m told around splitting rights was Netflix being the home for “ad-free” watching and NBC being the ad-supported option”. This a jibe Netflix took in its official Twitter statement regarding the removal of the show too saying: “members can binge watch the show to their hearts’ content ad-free on Netflix until January 2021”.

Details on the NBC Universal streaming platform remain scarce for the moment although it’s expected to be ad-supported for cable subscribers or around $10 a month (still ad-supported) for cord-cutters.

Are you unsure if $90 million worth the cost of The Office is worthwhile or a better use for those dollars elsewhere? Comment below to let us know your thoughts.